As CNN’s Jeff Greenfield said so memorably late on Election Night 2000, we have now left the gravitational pull of earth.

This presidential race has defied all predictions. Especially the prediction that it would all be over after Super Duper Tsunami Tuesday.

Instead, we now boldly go where no race has gone before – or at least for a long time.

The campaign has now had three different acts:

• A year-long buildup in which the candidates talked several times to every single voter in Iowa and New Hampshire, to whom we have assigned our up-close and in-person homework.

• A three-week sprint between New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and – for the Republicans – Florida.

• Then a whirlwind 10-day rock-star tour of half the country.

The Democrats are left split between Hillary’s surge among women and older voters and Obama’s surge among African-Americans and young voters.

Republicans are closer to my nightmare of picking their most electable candidate, John McCain. I’m pulling hard for Romney, Huckabee, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh to drag him down.

Now we go to mysterious states like Virginia, Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Ohio. And, dare we say, even North Carolina?

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