The Note
W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 7 —<br> -- Today's Schedule (all times Eastern):
—9:00 am: Senator Joe Lieberman speaks at the Second Annual Business Conference on Greece-U.S. Relations, D.C.
— 9:45 am: Off-camera White House press gaggle with Scott McClellan
—9:45 am: Senator Lieberman holds a press availability to discuss the recall, D.C.
—10:00 am: Polls open in California recall election
— 10:45 am: President Bush meets with his Cabinet, White House
—11:00 am: Senator John Kerry tours a senior center, Sioux City, Iowa
— 11:30 am: Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante and his family cast their recall ballots, Elk Grove, Calif.
— 11:30 am: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver cast their recall ballots, Los Angeles
— 12:30 pm: House convenes for morning business
— 12:45 pm: On-camera White House press briefing with Scott McClellan
— 1:00 pm: Reverend Al Sharpton addresses students at Spelman University, Atlanta
— 1:30 pm: Senator Kerry has lunch with Democratic activists at Lally's Restaurant, Le Mars, Iowa
—2:00 pm: Governor and Mrs. Davis cast their recall ballots, Los Angeles
— 2:00 pm: Lieutenant Governor Bustamante takes his parents to cast their recall ballots, Fresno, Calif.
— 3:00 pm: Senator John Edwards meets with Jones County Democratic activisits, Anamosa, Iowa
—4:30 pm: General Wesley Clark speaks about job creation at the Transportation Union Workers Local 514, Tulsa, Okla.
—5:00 pm: Governor Davis greets get-out-the-vote volunteers at the Fire Fighters Local 1014 Hall, El Monte, Calif. — 5:00 pm: Deadline for White House personnel to turn over documents pertaining to the leak of the identity of a CIA operative—6:00 pm: Representative Dennis Kucinich attends a "Democracy Rising" rally with Ralph Nader, D.C —6:00 pm: Senator Edwards attends a community gathering, Cedar Rapids, Iowa — 6:00 pm: Senator Kerry attends an event with Democratic activists, Cherokee, Iowa — 7:00 pm: Governor Davis greets get-out-the-vote volunteers at the United Food and Commerical Workers campaign office, Los Angeles — 8:00 pm: Senator Edwards meets with Democratic activists, Tipton, Iowa — 8:30 pm: Senator Kerry attends an event with Democratic activists at Northwest Iowa Community College, Sheldon, Iowa
— 11:00 pm: Polls close in California recall election
NEWS SUMMARY
In newsrooms in New York and conference rooms in Washington, the debate that has raged for weeks -- is the California recall a national story? -- is pretty much coming to an end.
Voter anger blah blah blah.
Implications for the President's re-election blah blah blah.
Porn stars, child actors, adult actors, smut peddlers blah blah blah.
For Terry McAuliffe (and his hard-working, always-more-than-enough-to-do staff) this has clearly been a national election.
Ditto for Barbra Streisand, Bill Clinton, Mark Barabak, Jeff Zeleny, Jay Leno, Mike Murphy, "good friend" Pat O'Brien, Jackie Calmes, Shari Annis, and John Sweeney.
Less so for Scott McClellan, 41 and Barbara (Remember when we all predicted they would stump with Arnold?), Barbara Boxer, Mike Glover, and Mindy Tucker.
The dirty little secret held by the most experienced political operatives and Germondian political reporters is there ain't much to do or to know on Election Day.
Florida 2000 changed a lot about the way operatives and journalists think about elections, but one of the things it changed the most was our shared loss of faith in the holy grail infallibility of the "network" (really: network and AP) exit polls.
But as Mr. Murphy and Tim Russert know, having access to the exit polls on election day is still significantly better than, say, hearing from your cousin's husband that there were long lines at his polling place in Encino, or from your affiliate that it is drizzling in Mendocino.
Note to our "sources" who normally don't return our calls and/or to whom we speak fewer than three times a year:
If you are looking for network exit poll numbers today, we suggest you call Tucker Carlson or Roger Ailes at home. Cable news will be wall-to-wall this evening, and you can get plenty of news on the Web, but until the polls close at 8 pm PT/11 pm ET, there will be no "official" word on what is happening.
In fact, given the national imperative Viacom and GE see in regular programming, to paraphrase the immortal line, we can tell you without any fear of contradiction that more people will get their news about the recall results from Nightline and ABC News (with East Coast AND West Coast editions) than from any other source. The Field Poll predicts 10 million Californians will vote in today's historic election --
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