All Blog Posts from Couric & Co.

It was an off-year election and an off night for Democrats.

Republican candidates swept gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia - two states President Obama won just a year ago.

How significant those victories are and what they foreshadow for 2010 - is up for debate today.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared these elections will determine the direction the country is headed - that Americans are tired of being tax too much by a government delivering too little.

The White House, meanwhile, is downplaying the results, and pointing to last night's congressional victory in New York's 23rd District.

Our own Jeff Greenfield delivered this timely analogy, "predicting national trends from off year elections is like predicting the World Series winner from spring training."

It may be too soon to say Republicans knocked it out of the park - but one thing is clear - they are still in the game.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Calling all pachyderms! The Republican Party is looking for a few good men and women.

As Politico reported, there's growing concern among some GOP leaders that controversial commentators and far-right conservatives have hijacked the message.

People like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin appeal to the base - and you certainly need that base to win elections. But in an age when 42 percent of Americans call themselves Independents - you can't win with just the base, either.

Minority Whip Eric Cantor is calling for more voices in the Republican Party. And Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty says the party needs to be all about addition right now - as the number of declared Republicans hits a 26 year low, according to a poll in the Washington Post.

Before the 2010 midterm elections roll around, Republicans need to get the focus back onto the Big Tent where all are welcome and off the sideshows that are popping up along the party's fringe.

That's a page from my notebook.

I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

Hi everyone. Katie's off today. I'm Jeff Glor.

The message from protesters in Iran today is loud and clear, but it seems to be very different from the one at the polls last Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators marched through the streets of Tehran to support reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi. They've been protesting ever since hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner by an almost two-to-one margin. It's a result many of them just don't believe.

But Ahmadinejad has his backers too. There's no proof the election was rigged. Although it doesn't help the government's case that police have beaten some of the protesters and the reporters trying to cover them.

Iran's supreme leader is promising an election fraud investigation. But, no matter who really won, the voice of the people crying out for change has been heard by the entire world this week. It might be very tough for the Iranian government to ignore.

I'm Jeff Glor. CBS News.

Christina Ruffini is a CBS News broadcast associate based in Washington.

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I am still completely strung out on Campaign '08. I'm not delusional. I know it's over. But two years and $5.3 billion later, I can’t be expected to just quit cold turkey. The election is still coursing through my veins. I need a dose of rhetoric, a snippet of sound bite, a quantum of controversy … anything to fill the giant void now left in my life.

Find me a sanitarium, a hospital, a quiet, secure place where I can hunker down and suffer through the next three years without a fix. The campaigns should be forced to pay for some sort of bi-partisan rehab to dry out all the rabid election junkies they created. Republicans and Democrats alike could be seen as bad back alley drug dealers: They got us hopped up on their product, and then inexplicably skipped town.

I am trying my best to get clean, but the withdrawal process is brutal. I am constantly alienating friends because I insist on calling them by their first name and occupation: Gene the government contractor, Dana the dental hygienist, Mike the middle-manager or Steve the unemployed-freeloader-living-off-of-his-wife's-palimony-payments.

I keep egging on the people ...

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There's one word we keep hearing over and over today: historic. But it's easy to hear it without thinking about what it really means ... how significant yesterday's election results really are.

When Barack Obama was born 47 years ago, the idea of an African-American President was unthinkable. Blacks had the right to vote, but many didn't, either because of intimidation or a feeling they just didn't have a voice.

There were still stores and businesses for whites only, and schools were struggling with desegregation following the Supreme Court's landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision just seven years earlier.

We have come a long way in less than half a century, and although we still have a ways to go, what happened yesterday broke through what had been an impenetrable barrier. Everyone, whether they supported Obama or John McCain, should be proud of that.

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Eric Kuhn is a new media consultant for CBS News ... that is, when he's not studying politics at Hamilton College.

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It's officially here: Election Night.

And we couldn't be more excited.

As part of our effort to give you all of the breaking news throughout the evening, CBS News will be providing up-to-the-minute election updates on Twitter.com all night at www.twitter.com/cbsnews.

Never heard of it? Twitter is ...

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It's Election Day, do you know where your polling station is?

If you have already voted today, congratulations! It is your right and your responsibility as a citizen of this democracy. If you haven't voted, there is still time.

Judging by the long lines in Ohio, Virginia, and even here in New York City, this will be a record-breaking year. Experts say 130 million people could cast their votes before the polls close, possibly the highest number of votes in history.

This long and dramatic race has come to its final act. By the night's end, we will have a President-elect, and the face of our democracy will be changed. Alongside those paintings of the white male Presidents and Vice Presidents who've led this country since 1776...we will add either a black man or a white woman.

When the contest is behind us, a new challenge begins for the victor. But tonight, we celebrate democracy together as Americans.

Mark Knoller is a White House Correspondent for CBS News.

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You hear it from nearly everyone you meet on Election Day: "Hi. Did you vote?"

Answer no and you’re most likely in for an argument.

"Why not?"

"Don’t you know it’s your duty to vote?"

And my personal favorite: "If you don’t vote, you don’t have a right to complain about the outcome!"

Without revealing whether I voted or not, I can certainly think of reasons a person could choose not to vote ...

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It's been a long and, at times, tedious 10 months since the Iowa Caucus. I have to confess, I've even dreamt about politics, a sure sign that I'm ready to say hasta la vista to Campaign 2008.

Not to sound like a credit card commercial, but here are a few numbers to take away as we approach the finish line:

Amount of money spent by the campaigns: an estimated $2 billion.

The cost of all those TV ads: about $800 million.

Americans coming to early voting locations in huge numbers: well, that's priceless.

About 30 percent voted early, up from 22 percent in 2004. Experts say that puts us on track for a record turnout, as many as 130 million – or more – may vote before it's over.

This election has energized voters from both parties. No matter what happens tomorrow night, history will be made and someone's political dream will come true. The real kind of dream – not those ones I've been having.

Get out and vote!

Either John McCain or Barack Obama will make history come Nov. 4th - and they will also face historic challenges in the future.

For more, just click on the little monitor to watch my Notebook.