Arnold’s victory speech was good, I thought. He tried to reach across party lines, promote unity, etc. The key line was “For the people to win, politics as usual must lose.” Of course, making a speech is easy; governing is hard. (As InstaPundit says, “Congrats, Arnold. Now all you have to do is govern the most ungovernable state in America!”) But he’s off to a good start, at least.

If Governor Schwarzenegger backs up his bipartisan words with bipartisan actions once in office, it will be interesting to see if California’s liberals — the folks who were booing during Davis’s concession — will take his hand of cooperation, or spurn it because they hate him and consider him illegitimate, just as they do with Bush. (Bush, of course, has not backed up his “uniter, not a divider” rhetoric with actions. Let’s hope Arnold does better. And if he does, let’s hope liberals don’t thwart him out of spite.)

Andrew Sullivan says this is “a potentially excellent development for the state of California, for punishing a certain type of interest-group-beholden Democrat, and really, really good news for the future of the Republican party nationally.”

The Drudge Report, meanwhile, declares simply, “CALEEEEEFORNEEEEA, HERE HE COMES!” Heh.

“Enough about Arnold, Gray, and Cruz!” you say. “How is Gary Coleman doing?” BrendanLoy.com is here to give you the answer!

With 33.5% of the precincts reporting, Coleman is in tenth place with 3,325 votes (0.2%), just ahead of porn star Mary Cook (a.k.a. “Mary Carey”), who has 2,872 (also 0.2%) votes for eleventh place.

Who else is in the Top 10, you ask? Well, after Schwarzenegger (1,330,992 votes, 50.3%), of course there’s the top tier: Bustamante (805,829, 30.5%), conservative Republican Tom McClintock (343,728, 13.0%), Green Party candidate Peter Camejo (58,809, 2.3%), dropped-out independent Arianna Huffington (26,310, 1.0%), and dropped-out Republican Peter Ueberroth (10,204, 0.4%).

Nothing too nutty there. But then in seventh place we have Hustler publisher Larry Flynt (4,913, 0.2%). Woohoo! :) Let’s hear it for California’s porn obsession!

Dropped-out conservative Republican and 2002 gubernatorial loser Bill Simon is eighth (3,842, 0.2%). But then comes my favorite: the ninth-place finisher, George B. Schwartzman, an independent whose 3,701 votes probably came mostly from confused voters who saw “Schwartz…” and thought they were voting for Arnold!!!

Click here for the latest complete results!

Jeez — what’s the matter with these Gray Davis supporters? He’s trying to be gracious in his concession speech, yet they’re vociferously booing Schwarzenegger’s name, booing when he says “in the next few weeks, we will have a new governor,” even crying “NO!” when he says he accepts the result! What do they want Davis to do? Surround himself with National Guard troops in Sacramento and declare himself Governor for Life?

Honestly! Have these people no respect for the concepts of democracy and the rule of law? Have they never heard of graciously accepting defeat, in the interests of a peaceful democratic transition? We can disagree over the result, we can even disagree over the process, but the process is very clear under the law, and unless and until it’s changed, the law is the law — and under the law, the people have spoken clearly, and Arnold Schwarzenegger is clearly the governor-elect. Do they disagree with that somehow?

Marlins 9, Cubs 8, final in 11 innings. :( What a heartbreaker.

SAMMY SOSA HITS A GAME-TYING, TWO-RUN HOMER WITH TWO OUTS IN THE BOTTOM OF THE NINTH! Holy Crap! (Marlins had taken an 8-6 lead.) They must be going NUTS at Wrigley! (I’m following the play-by-play on my cell phone on the bus.)

I just got an email from ABC7 in L.A. — they project recall succeeds & Arnold wins.

I just landed at LaGuardia. It’s Cubs 6, Marlins 6, in the bottom of the eighth. California polls close in a few minutes. Suspense all around!

On plane. Game still 5-4. Exit polls show 83% of Calif. voters say they made up their minds a month or more ago.

At airport bar watching game. Cubs led 4-1 but just fell behind 5-4. Entering top of 4th.

I’m at an airport Internet terminal that charges $5 for the first five minutes, so very quickly…

Confirming my dad’s reading of the TV tea leaves, InstaPundit reports that the Drudge Report says “exit polls show big wins for Arnold and the recall.”

I can’t get on Drudge itself, presumably because of heavy traffic, but feel free to try for yourself and see if you have better luck.

Cubs 0, Marlins 0, first inning. No “score” yet in California, of course, but Dad says TV pundits convey an “inexplicit but clear” belief that Arnold will win, based (presumably) on unspoken but known exit poll results. In other news, I am in Philly.

USA Today reports that Jon Stewart will provide live coverage of the California results on Comedy Central. It’s called “Redecision 2003.” Starts when the polls close. Heh.