Well we’re in the throes of the U.S. general election now, as 50 separate, independent states vote in their own races and appoint their 538 designated electors to vote on their behalf for president of the federation of states.

1) I’ll not surprise you by predicting Obama will win. But it may not be so close, and McCain certainly stands a chance of stealing it. Plus we aren’t certain what influence the Bradley effect will have this time.

2) I agree with those who say everybody should get behind the new president, whoever he is, once this election is done. Partisanship doesn’t seem to be helping us much.

3) Watch Missouri. The state of Missouri is a perfect microcosm of the United States: the demographics and proportions are the same as in America as a whole. Whatever they do, America will do. The proof of this is the fact that, for the past 100 years, Missouri has voted for the winner in every single presidential election but one (it’s such a perfect bellwether that it even worked in the too-close-to-call elections, including Bush/Gore in 2000). The results in Missouri are therefore extremely likely to predict the overall election. Missouri polls close at 8pm Eastern Time.

4) Tip: Starbucks planned to give a free cup of coffee to anybody who voted today, and Ben & Jerry’s planned to give ’em all a free scoop of ice-cream. But they had to abandon the plan late as they were told it violated some laws intended to prevent people bribing others for votes, so now they’re giving free coffee and ice-cream to anybody who asks!

5) Obama took forever to vote this morning. I got up and got ready for work during the time he stood there in the voting booth, soaking up the camera time. Smart.

6) You could do worse than to rely on Google News for a quick reference as to how the candidates are doing: click here and look at the right hand side (remember a candidate needs 270 votes to become president).

7) I’m ready for the election to be finished. It’s an exciting day but it will be nice to have this long, exhausting campaign behind us as a media and as a nation.

Happy voting, and I’ll be sure to comment on the results tomorrow!