Election Night

We in the blue states hear from the talking heads on Fox News and MSNBC that many of you in the red states are so distressed about the outcome of the elections that you would like to secede from the Union. Now, it seems that at least six of you - Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina - have submitted enough signatures (25,000) on petitions to the White House website to merit a formal response, with more petitions on the way. We wish you the best of luck with this.

Three weeks after the Los Angeles primary election, the city will announce the final vote count Tuesday in races for mayor, City Council and other local offices. For candidates in an Eastside council race, the final tally for the primary could make the difference between outright victory or a runoff on May 21. The initial result found former state Sen. Gil Cedillo falling less than a percentage point below the majority that a candidate needs to avoid a runoff. If Cedillo fails to exceed 50% in the final count, his runoff opponent will be Jose Gardea, chief of staff to Councilman Ed Reyes.

Reelection wasn't President Obama's only accomplishment Tuesday. He also had the most retweeted tweet of all time. Following several TV networks declaring him the winner, Obama's Twitter account sent out a tweet saying "Four more years" along with a picture of himself hugging First Lady Michelle Obama. That tweet has now been retweeted more than 660,000 times. The tweet has received nearly three times as many retweets as the previous record holder, a tweet sent out by Justin Bieber in September, according to Mediabistro . Additionally, election night itself also broke a Twitter record.

Democrat Collin Peterson conceded defeat today to Rep. Arlan Stangeland (R-Minn.), 45 days after the Nov. 4 election and a week after a recount ended. "It's probably been the longest election night in history. I'm glad it's over," Peterson said at a news conference at the Wilkin County Courthouse. Stangeland won by 295 votes.

THE GOVERNOR'S RACE * What Happened Monday: Republican Pete Wilson spent his final day of campaigning with rallies in San Jose, Long Beach, Orange County and his home city of San Diego. Democrat Kathleen Brown attended ralles at the College of San Mateo, Cal State Northridge and the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda. * What's Ahead: Brown votes near her home in Los Angeles this morning and attends election night gathering at the Biltmore Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.

For most Americans, interest in the results of the 2012 presidential campaign ended somewhere around the first election night projections for President Obama and the brief, stunned concession speech delivered by a gobsmacked Mitt Romney. But for a small group of obsessives, the political equivalent of those who devour box scores for breakfast, a fascinating and welcome service has come from David Wasserman, a youthful and whip-smart campaign analyst with the Cook Political Report, who has become a one-man clearinghouse for presidential tabulations across the country.

Re “ The great election night scam ,” Opinion, Nov. 15 Michael Kinsley's insights are usually on the mark, but not his rant about the so-called election-night scam perpetrated by TV networks that refrain from reporting election results until the polls close everywhere. Most of us think that avoiding any possible influence on voting is worth the wait, even if that causes pundits to squirm for a few hours on election day. Garland Allen Santa Monica What Kinsley says is true, but only if you disregard everything but the presidential contest.

Bush's campaign thus becomes an example rather than a heinous embarrassment, a reinforcement of vilification as a national sport. His election night quest of unity was as glib and perfunctory as you'd expect from a politician who is, after all, a moral shrimp. We will eventually pay for this consummate yes-man's inability to say no to his own worst impulses. Pundits attributed Bush's smashing victory in large measure to his resume, as though by simply occupying a job you discharge that job with distinction.