BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) - What is the nation in for tonight? Political observers are fastening their seat belts. They say it is either election day, or the beginning of election month.
ABC analyst Alex Castellanos pictures the NCAA playoffs. "This is March Madness for Donald Trump. He has to win every game to move onto the next round." Castellanos says Trump has to win each battleground state to keep going and keep his chances of retaining the presidency alive. Biden does not. "Biden can lose some of the states, as long as he gets Pennsylvania."
As the night unfolds, results will be coming in from Florida, then Georgia and North Carolina. All three are must-wins for Trump. Castellanos says North Carolina is a microcosm of the voters Trump needs elsewhere through the upper midwest.
Republican strategist Carl Calabrese, with Masiello, Martucci, Calabrese & Associates, is keeping his eye on Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. "These are very important for President Trump. The Democrats would love to pick off one of those. Conversely, you have Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin and Trump would love to pick off one of those," he said.
The direction of the night may come early from the state of Florida. "If Trump wins Florida, he's in the ballgame. If he loses Florida, it makes life extremely difficult," said Calabrese. Some analysts say it's nearly impossible for Trump to get to 270 electoral votes, without Florida.
Dave Levinthal, Senior Washington Correspondent for Business Insider said he fully expects to go to bed later tonight, or Wednesday morning, without knowing who the next President of the United States is going to be. "People are going to have to have a certain degree of patience that supersedes what they have ever had before for an election night, at least since the year 2000, when that went into serious overtime, lasting weeks beyond election day."
Levinthal says all of the uncertainty does not include the potential legal challenges and fights that will continue for days, if not weeks.
Look for networks to be more guarded tonight in calling the presidential race in different states. "Whether it's CNN, FOX, MSNBC or another network, you're going to see a lot of caution. No one is going to go out on a limb. No one is going to make wild predictions. No one is going to call a race before the race can be called," he said.
Levinthal notes that the Associated Press is the gold standard when it comes to calling races. "They have made it very clear that they are not going to call a race
until they are absolutely certain that a race can be called."
