The president's chief adviser, Karl Rove , has said repeatedly that one of his goals for this election was to increase the turnout among evangelical Christians. In his estimation, some 4 million evangelical Christians stayed home in 2000 and did not vote. So one of the things is to ... turn out your base.

If independent turnout is high, it's probably good news for Edwards. If the African-American turnout is high, it's probably good news for Kerry.

Really, those are the only hopes that Edwards has of pulling anything out is if those two guys pull significant votes away from Kerry, ... I don't expect that to happen, but those are the 'Hail Marys.'

Al Sharpton can legitimately have a lucrative entertainment career and speaking career. People genuinely find him to be very entertaining, he can be funny and maybe he'll make some money.

There are five swing states that on Election Day have gay marriage bans on the ballot.

Blogs are a real force, ... They're not just for geeks anymore.

The bigger story is the new voters who may come in. Last time we had 105 million people vote. Some say we will have 115, maybe 120 million people vote. Registration has shot up in a number of states - 5 percent in Ohio, 7 percent in Pennsylvania. A lot of new people will be at the polls.

You have to look at African-American turnout, particularly in Prince George's County. If that turns out his way, that can be helpful.

When all is said and done, his standing among progressives is only going to increase, and he'll be a bigger player on Capitol Hill.