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McCain wins Missouri's 11 electoral votes; Obama still president-electToday

Fifteen days after the presidential election, John McCain was declared the unofficial winner of the state of Missouri, his 0.12% victory over Barack Obama delivering the Show Me State's 11 electoral votes to the Republican ticket.

Unfortunately for the Arizona Republican, that still leaves him on the short end of a 365-173 electoral total, with Democrat Obama easily topping the 270 mark needed for victory.

The narrow McCain Missouri victory, by just 3,902 votes out of 2,888,000 cast, means that Missouri sided with the presidential loser for just the second time in the last century.

Missouri also "got it wrong" in 1956, when it delivered a narrow 3,984-vote win to Democrat Adlai Stevenson over Republican incumbent President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The state had remained unclaimed this year as election officials awaited final results from four locales -- the city and county of St. Louis, Jackson County near Kansas City and from rural Montgomery County. Those tallies arrived Wednesday at the Secretary of State's office.

McCain gained 31 votes in the final returns, while Obama actually lost 235 votes. Election officials found that a figure for the ...

... Illinois senator had been improperly entered and corrected the er

Calif. Supreme Court accepts same-sex marriage case but refuses to halt Prop. 8 enforcementToday

The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to Proposition 8, the ballot measure approved earlier this month that banned same-sex marriage in the Golden State.

But the court also denied a request to put the ban on hold until it considers the challenge.

Here's the court's actual statement:

"The California Supreme Court today denied requests to stay the enforcement or implementation of Proposition 8, and at the same time agreed to decide several issues arising out of the passage of Proposition 8.

"The court’s order, issued in the first three cases that had been filed directly in the state’s highest court challenging the validity of Proposition 8, directed the parties to brief and argue three issues:

(1) Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution?

(2) Does Proposition 8 violate the separation-of-powers doctrine under the California Constitution?

(3) If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?"

More details later.

--Andrew Malcolm

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Full text of President-elect Obama's White House staff announcementToday

President-elect Barack Obama announces more White House staff, including the anticipated appointment of chief campaign strategist (and former politics reporter) David Axelrod as senior advisor.

Here's the statement:

Obama-Biden Transition Team Announces More White House Staff

President-elect Barack Obama today announced the following key White House staff: David Axelrod, Lisa Brown, Greg Craig and Chris Lu.

David Axelrod will serve as Senior Advisor to the President.

Lisa Brown will serve as Staff Secretary.

Greg Craig will serve as White House Counsel.

Chris Lu will serve as Cabinet Secretary.

"I am pleased to announce these new additions to our team, and I'll be relying on their broad and diverse experience in the months ahead as we work to strengthen our

Obama, a bottle of wine ... and thou, Tom DaschleToday

It's almost hard to recall now a time when Barack Obama was received by the political establishment as the young upstart. But so it was.

All the more reason that Obama would appreciate those, like Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota, who encouraged the young senator from Illinois to leapfrog over his peers and run for the White House.

Obama rewarded that early support and Daschle's years of experience in Washington by making his onetime mentor the choice as the next secretary of Health and Human Services, putting him in place to help draw the administration's health policies. (See news video below.)

It's the second leaked Obama cabinet appointment in as many days, with Eric Holder set to become the new Attorney General,

With only 1,448 days until election day 2012, Ron Paul ponders another runToday

With only 1,448 days left before the 2012 election, you-know-who is making plans to launch another long-shot campaign for the presidency.

So much can happen before Nov. 6, 2012: Hillary Clinton could be on the Supreme Court. Her husband could be getting $400,000 per speech.

There'll be yet another James Bond actor. Shrek IX will be showing. And Harry Reid will be scowling. Still.

Also, you can bet Rep. Ron Paul will be running for the White House again, probably as a Republican. Not so much to actually win, mind you; RP runs to make a point about less government and foreign intervention.

And anyway by then, at age 77 Paul will be the second oldest guy to launch a los