-- Ultimately, the polls were right -- for the most part. For months, pundits and pollsters debated whether public surveys were capturing accurate snapshots of the coming electorate, with conservatives in many cases alleging that polls were sampling too many Democrats and providing an artificial boost to Democratic candidates.

Those critics were wrong, as Tuesday night showed, and the polls were correct: President Obama did have that advantage, and it has propelled him to a second term. But the election also showed the polling industry is still facing increasing challenges related to how the various polls are conducted. The demographics of the country are changing, and the way in which Americans communicate with one another is changing even faster; both of these movements are significant threats to the future of telephone polling, whether conducted by live interviewers or automated computers.

-- Republicans were stunned by Obama's decisive victory, but the party performed even worse at the Senate level. In five Senate races, the GOP nominee performed at least nine points worse than Mitt Romney (Missouri, Indiana, Montana, Maine, North Dakota). Of the four who overperformed Romney, all were in solidly-Democratic states and none were victorious. And brand-name Republicans like Tommy Thompson and George Allen weren't able to pick off any cross-over support despite their records as ex-governors.

At the beginning of the year, if a pundit suggested Democrats would gain Senate seats, they'd have been seen as delusional. Gaining two was the equivalent of an inside straight in poker -- and possible in part because of the weak GOP Senate recruiting class.

-- If there's a silver lining for Republicans, it's this: They have a deep, diverse bench for 2016. Rising stars like Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan, Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal -- just to name a few -- could prove capable of modernizing the conservative movement and providing a much-needed face lift for a party that's performed miserably among key segments of the electorate: minorities and young people. Rubio, especially, has the political skill and personal appeal to help solve the GOP's vexing demographic dilemma.

Speaking of Rubio: He has made a series of savvy political chess moves since arriving in Washington, and his decision to decline the NRSC chairmanship is the latest example. The freshman senator already has enough on his plate: a young family to attend to, an underdeveloped PAC to nurture, and a key role to play in his party's imminent reformation on the immigration issue. Oh, he's also got a schedule to keep clear -- Iowa has already come calling (he'll travel there later this month), and New Hampshire won't be far behind.

-- The majority of Senate nominees who won Tuesday won a higher percentage of the vote in their races than their party's ticket mate did in the presidential race. For Joe Manchin, Heidi Heitkamp and Jon Tester, it was about survival: how else could they win states Obama was destined to lose? But for freshmen and potential 2016ers Amy Klobuchar and Kirsten Gillibrand, it was about running up the score to make a statement in otherwise safe seats against little-known opponents. Both Gillibrand and Klobuchar received more than 300,000 more votes than Obama.

-- Gillibrand's numbers stick out the most though. She ran up the score by an even greater margin than Hillary Clinton did in 2006 against a sacrificial GOP lamb by blanketing the expensive airwaves with positive TV ads, spending over $9 million in the third quarter reporting period alone. She also cuts checks worth thousands to dollars to individual women candidates across the country, many of whom won.

While New York Republicans and Democrats alike routinely dismiss her as a lightweight in the state's hierarchy compared to Clinton, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, they should take note that the 45-year-old prodigious fundraiser now has capital to burn, favors to cash and six years to pad her warchest. Even if she doesn't run for president in four years, the GOP's inability to recruit a serious challenger to her in three-straight election cycles and her own relentless push has made her a serious player on the national scene.

After days of counting ballot's in the state's all-mail election, former Rep. Jay Inslee (D) will become Washington's 23rd governor. The Associated Press projects Inslee will defeat Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna by a narrow 51 percent to 49 percent margin, with 79 percent of precincts reporting.

McKenna, a technocrat who shunned party ideology, was considered one of Republicans' best chances of winning the governor's mansion. The state hasn't elected a Republican governor since John Spellman in 1980. As Washington state Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur put it at an election night party, "If we can't elect Rob McKenna, maybe it is time to move to Texas," according to the Seattle Times. McKenna conceded the race on Friday evening, as he trailed by 40,000 votes.

Rep. Ron Barber, D-Ariz., took a 586-vote lead over Republican Martha McSally Friday after local elections authorities counted more early ballots. McSally led Barber by almost 9,000 votes in ballots cast at polling places, but Barber leads among early voters, and that margin is expanding as the counties in Arizona's 2nd District tally outstanding early votes. This is the first time Barber has led McSally in the vote count since election night. As Hotline On Call reported yesterday, early voting has tended to favor Democrats in Arizona lately, especially in this district.

Meanwhile, in California's 7th District, Democrat Ami Bera expanded his lead over GOP Rep. Dan Lungren as Sacramento County tallied additional ballots. Bera had a scant 184-vote advantage over Lungren after the final election night tally, but that expanded to nearly 2,000 -- 105,245 to 103,466, almost a one percentage point margin -- as the county tallied some of the 162,000 outstanding mail ballots and 31,000 outstanding provisional ballots left over after Tuesday. (Some of those ballots apply to other congressional districts.)

The Sunday shows will reflect on the election results and look to the looming fiscal cliff.

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod will headline Face the Nation discussing President Obama's victory this past week and the next four years. Newly elected Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, will be on Meet the Press talking about Obama's challenges in the second term.

On State of the Union, the future of both political parties takes center stage. California Gov. Jerry Brown will talk about the Democratic agenda in an interview with host Candy Crowley. On the Republican side, former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Campaign for Working Families president Gary Bauer will talk about what's next for the GOP. Face the Nation will also host Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC., discussing similar issues.

Univision's Al Punto will have Gutierrez, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros , former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and four newly elected members of Congress, Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Calif., Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Texas, Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas, talking about immigration reform and the impact of Latinos on the election.

The fiscal cliff will be a popular topic on Sunday. Fox News Sunday has Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., talking about the negotiations. Conrad will also be appearing on BloombergTV's Capitol Gains. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY., and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., are on Meet the Press discussing the same issue.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., will talk about Libya and Iran on Fox News Sunday.

AHIP CEO Karen Ignagni will be on Capitol Gains talking about implementation of healthcare reform now that Obama has won his second term.

Check out the full listings after the jump.

Among Democrats, Bush received a near majority of the votes, 47 percent, among the eight choices presented. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie received the second most tallies, at 28 percent, and no other contender managed to receive more than 15 percent of the vote share.

Here's the Seattle Times on the latest:

Today's Must See Moment -- Fast forward to 1:52 to see both the most and the least retweeted photos of all time.

King is coming off a pricey reelection battle against former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack, winning a sixth term in office by about 8 percentage points.

"There's a question I hadn't had time to contemplate since the election," King told reporters. "We're only in the second day after the election."

King, on a challenge to Harkin (who is 73 and hasn't announced whether he'll run for reelection), per the Cedar Rapids Gazette:

King is a social conservative (he even voiced support for GOP Rep. Todd Akin this summer when his "legitimate rape" comments caused a firestorm), but said he's not too conservative to run statewide.

10) After Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., called evolution, among other scientific theories, "lies straight from the pits of hell," Charles Darwin received close to 4,000 write-in votes.

9) Former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman is among those being considered for Secretary of State, the Associated Press reports.

8) Rep. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, weighs in on Mitt Romney's loss in his state. LaTourette, on CNN's "Situation Room": "He didn't win Ohio because every time we got these socially moderate fiscally conservative women close to us, some chucklehead in Indiana or Missouri would say that being pregnant after being raped is a gift from God."

7) The Illinois gubernatorial race in 2014 is shaping up early: Now, GOP Illinois state Sen. Kirk Dillard says he's preparing for another run for (he lost in the primary in 2010).

Other people who have indicated potential interest: Rep. Aaron Schock and freshly defeated Rep. Joe Walsh on the Republican side. The Democratic side could be even more interesting, with former White House chief of staff Bill Daley and state Attorney General Lisa Madigan not ruling out challenging Gov. Pat Quinn in the Democratic primary.

6) Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe makes it official: He's making a second run for governor in Virginia.

"I realize that after any election some people's immediate question is about the next campaign," he said in an email to supporters. "I want to be straightforward with you: I plan on running for Governor of Virginia in 2013."

The big question: Will Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, up for re-election in 2014, make a run at the governorship, creating a blockbuster primary or stick it out for a second term in the Senate?

No, not Jeb -- while people speculate about a 2016 matchup between the former Florida governor and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his son is running for something in the meantime.

George P. Bush made a filing to run for office in Texas, the Associated Press reports, though it's unclear which one. Bush filed a campaign treasurer appointment Wednesday. The AP:

-- Arizona's 2nd and 9th Districts:

In Arizona, over 602,000 early and provisional ballots remain uncounted -- nearly 450,000 of which are in Maricopa County, the state's population center. That should at the very least tighten the Senate race, but it could affect the outcomes of two House races, too.

In the 2nd District, Democratic Rep. Ron Barber is slightly behind GOP challenger Martha McSally -- the Arizona Daily Star reports that McSally led by about 1,300 votes, but that has already narrowed to 426 in the latest tally, and tens of thousands of provisional and early ballots have yet to be counted. There is reason to believe they will favor Barber.

In 2010, then-Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (who Barber replaced) beat Republican Jesse Kelly by just over 12,000 in early voting and narrowly in the provisional ballots -- enough to win despite trailing in votes cast on Election Day. Barber pulled the same trick against Kelly in the June special election to replace Giffords.

In the 9th District, Democratic nominee Krysten Sinema holds a small lead over Republican Vernon Parker -- 2,715 votes. Sinema's campaign manager said that lead had grown from 600 in the morning as uncounted early and provisional ballots turned out to favor the Democrat.

Hotline on Call caught up with Curson on his plans for the lame-duck stint. Curson said the results of his close election have not yet been made official, but once the Clerk of the House receives a certificate of election, House Speaker John Boehner can swear him in. He anticipates that will happen Tuesday or Wednesday, but he's making the trip early to prepare for his short term. "I'm gonna drive down Saturday," Curson said. "I look like the Beverly Hillbillies; I got everything packed up in my pickup truck."

As for his living arrangements, he's getting by with a little help from a friend -- Dean of the House John Dingell. "Congressman Dingell graciously has offered me a room until I get my feet on the ground, a bed to sleep in," Curson said. He said he'll look for temporary housing or maybe a hotel or "I might just be a vagabond for seven weeks."

He said his relationships with members of the Michigan delegation -- Dingell, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, and Reps. Gary Peters and John Conyers -- will be an asset as he tries to make a quick adjustment. Some of them have offered to loan him staffers so he's ready to "go to work on Day 1" without the usual distractions of getting settled in.

Those friendships were forged during Curson's years as a United Auto Workers negotiator, a position he says has him well-prepared for the dealings of the lame duck. "I've literally been involved in thousands of negotiations," Curson said. "In every (UAW) negotiation with the Big Three (automakers) -- I've literally been involved in every one since 1982." He also mentioned his role in helping secure loans that enabled President Obama's bailout of the auto industry.

Earlier, we looked at the candidate who helped Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to a loss in her Senate contest Tuesday night. In Montana, the third-party candidate also had an impact -- and it seems even more clear that his votes came from GOP Rep. Denny Rehberg, who narrowly lost to Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.

Dan Cox, the Libertarian candidates, racked up about 30,000 votes. It's significantly more than the number of votes separating Tester and Rehberg. And Tester can in part thank an outside group that supported his bid and put $500,000 ads calling Cox "The Real Conservative."

The Missoulian: