(You’ve probably seen the president’s celebratory “Four More Years” photo everywhere on Facebook and Twitter. With more than four million “Likes,” it’s Facebook’s most-Liked photo ever. It’s been re-tweeted more than 790,000 times, the most RTs ever.)

Of course, President Obama was a social media star even before he was re-elected, and he’ll probably continue to generate a flood of Likes and RTs through the rest of his term. The Oxford Internet Institute found that the president would have defeated Mitt Romney handily if the election had been based on Twitter references. And on Thursday, the word “Obama” had been used in more than one million Tweets, according to the social search website Topsy.  Also trending Thursday on Twitter in the U.S. – “Karl Rove” and “GOP.” But not really in a good way.

But since the election, another term that’s probably more of a concern to the president has started to make its way onto social media:

“Fiscal cliff.“

It’s a reference to the government’s possible economic implosion at the end of the year, and it has been used nearly 63,000 times on Twitter in the last day or so. Several of the references have come from news organizations and conservative pundits in reference to yesterday’s stock market tumble. But if you search for “Obama” on Twitter right now, you’ll also see Tweets like these:

How long before someone draws a political cartoon of Obama & Boehner driving in a convertible towards a cliff a la Thelma & Louise? #america

— ajk (@mister_kehl) November 8, 2012

In all seriousness, yay for Obama but that fiscal cliff needs resolution in days, not weeks or months. Lame duck nothin, America needs it

— Chike Amajoyi (@Chike43) November 8, 2012

The impact of social media on politics and government is still a matter of debate, but a healthy percentage of Americans are expressing their opinions there, to be sure. According to numbers from the Census and the Pew Internet and American Life Project, about 131 million American adults use social media. Trends show that those numbers most likely will continue to grow.

As of 9 a.m. PT today, more than 61 million votes cast Tuesday had been counted for President Obama. He received 69 million votes in 2008.

Based on what’s being said right now on Twitter and Facebook, President Obama most likely can rest assured that the social media constituency has his back. At least until “fiscal cliff” passes “Justin Bieber” in searches….

STF/AFP/GettyImages

Tonight we’ll be live blogging presidential results,  U.S. Senate races, hotly contested House seats in California, propositions, select State Assembly results, and local  contests around the Bay Area. A look at the presidential picture, below. Also see 9 Key Senate Races.

The other day one of our reporters who drew the assignment of gathering local reaction to the presidential election asked the practical question, “Should I go out on the streets or go into the bars?”

The answer, of course: depends who wins. If it’s Obama, I say our reporter should head for the celebrations in the street. If it’s Romney, hit the drinking establishments and home in on the sad sacks throwing down double bourbons like a bereft Humphrey Bogart trying his best to forget Ingrid Bergman. And don’t forget to keep your ears open for mumbling about “moving to Canada” and “goddamn Ohio.”

Meaning, of course, it’s no secret who a sizable majority of the people within the sound of KQED’s radio signal will be rooting for. The Bay Area is sort of the home field for the Democratic team, which you can confirm either by looking out your window at the political signs, checking your Facebook friends’ status updates, or browsing the 2008 election results by California county; Obama’s majority ranged from 63.5 percent in Solano to 84 percent in San Francisco. Because the left-of-left constituency here may grumble about the Democratic squad during the season, but when it comes to the World Series, everyone’s wearing the correct hat. That’s not to say there are no supporters of the Romney/Ryan ticket in these parts; they may just be lying a little lower, obscuring their bumper stickers underneath the ones about their kid being  an honor student.

California, of course, is not the issue, anyway. Once the state’s treasure trove of electoral votes was reliably harvested by Republicans: Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush the First. Not anymore; a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t taken the state since 1988. California is so off the GOP radar, Republicans have taken to using it as a punchline.

So as we live blog the night away, we’ll be focusing, like everybody else, on the swing states, keeping in mind there’s not always agreement on which ones still swing and which don’t. (New Mexico has been taken off lists this year, as the polls show a hefty lead for Obama in the state.) We’ll especially be keeping an eye on Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Wisconsin, and of course, the swingingest of the set, Ohio. The New York Times’ polling guru Nate Silver, who called 49 out of 50 states correctly in 2008 and has become something of a cult figure — albeit a controversial one — has written that Ohio has a 50% chance of being the deciding state in the election. He also gives Obama a 92 percent — that’s right, 92 percent — chance of winning.

If you’re a Republican, you think that’s a bunch of eggheaded hooey. If you’re a Democrat,  you’re probably not counting your chickens before they’re, well, counted.

But whoever wins, just a little advice:

Whether you’re the type who has celebrated Obama’s first-term accomplishments (health care, stimulus, auto bailout) or has vilified him for his political crimes (health care, stimulus, auto bailout), if your particular guy is the one who loses, please remember…

Canada’s really cold.

Final swing state polling data:

• Michigan
• Colorado
• Florida
• Iowa
• New  Hampshire
• Nevada
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Pennsyvlania
• Virginia
• Wisconsin

“Our work is not done yet,” Obama told a cheering crowd of nearly 20,000 in chilly Madison, Wis., imploring his audience to give him another four years.

Romney projected optimism as he neared the end of his six-year quest for the presidency. “If you believe we can do better. If you believe America should be on a better course. If you’re tired of being tired … then I ask you to vote for real change,” he said in a Virginia suburb of the nation’s capital. With many of the late polls in key states tilting slightly against him, he decided to campaign on Election Day in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where he and Republicans made a big, late push.

The presidency aside, there are 33 Senate seats on the ballot Tuesday, and according to one Republican official, a growing sense of resignation among his party’s rank and file that Democrats will hold their majority.

The situation was reversed in the House, where Democrats made no claims they were on the verge of victory in pursuit of the 25 seats they need to gain control.

National opinion polls in the presidential race made the popular vote a virtual tie.

In state-by-state surveys, it appeared Obama held small advantages in Nevada, Ohio, Iowa and Wisconsin — enough to deliver a second term if they endured, but not so significant that they could withstand an Election Day surge by Romney supporters. Both men appealed to an ever smaller universe of undecided voters.

More than 30 million absentee or early ballots have been cast, including in excess of 3 million in Florida. The state also had a legal controversy, in the form of a Democratic lawsuit seeking an extension of time for pre-Election Day voting.

There were other concerns, logistical rather than legal.

Officials in one part of New Jersey delivered voting equipment to emergency shelters so voters displaced by Superstorm Sandy last week could cast ballots. New York City made arrangements for shuttle buses to provide transportation for some in hard-hit areas unable to reach their polling places.

Judging from the long early voting lines in some places and the comments made in others, the voters were more than ready to have their say.

“I watch the news all the time, and I am ready for it to be over,” said Jennifer Walker, 38, of Columbus, Ohio, who said she took time off from work to attend the president’s speech during the day in a show of support. “I feel like he is getting better with the economy. I don’t think it’s hopeless. It takes time.”

But Bryan Dobes, 21, a University of Iowa student from suburban Chicago, voted for Romney on Monday and said unemployment and spending have been too high under Obama. “He promised a lot of hope and change, and I’m not seeing it,” he said of the president.

“No retreat, no surrender,” sang rock icon Bruce Springsteen, warming up Obama’s crowd on a frosty morning outside the State Capitol in Madison, Wis. The Boss then boarded Air Force One for his first flight. “Pretty cool,” he judged it.

Romney had Kid Rock and the Marshall Tucker Band in the wings for his late appearances in Ohio and New Hampshire.

“This is it,” the challenger said in a last-minute emailed request for campaign donations.

“I will lead us out of this economic crisis by implementing pro-growth policies that will create 12 million new jobs. With your help, I will deliver real change and a real recovery. America will be strong again.”

In his longest campaign day, Romney raced from Florida to a pair of speeches in Virginia to Ohio and then an election eve rally in New Hampshire.

Obama selected Wisconsin, Ohio and Iowa for his final campaign day, an itinerary that reflected his campaign’s decision to try and erect a Midwestern firewall against Romney’s challenge.

Vice President Joe Biden and Republican running mate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin went through their final campaign paces, as well.

In Sterling, Va., not far from Washington, the vice president accused Republicans of running away from their record, but added, “a leopard can’t change his spots.”

Ryan started out in Reno, Nev., where he said the president has come up short in his promises to change Washington and repair the economy.

“This may be the best that Barack Obama can offer, but this is not the best America can,” he said, before flying off to Colorado and Ohio. Then it was home to Wisconsin, where he is on the ballot for re-election to Congress in case Republicans were unsuccessful in the presidential campaign.

Conscientious to the end, supporters kept knocking on doors in search of a possibly decisive vote.

In Enfield, N.H., Obama volunteer Sarah Ayres recalled driving up a deserted dirt road, unsure if she would find the house she was looking for. She turned down a long driveway, she said, got out of her car, and was met by a friendly, white goat.

“There were no people home, but the goat was there, so I don’t know if I should count that as a contact,” she joked.

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) debates with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. (Rick Wilking-Pool/Getty Images)

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — President Barack Obama sharply challenged Mitt Romney on foreign policy in their final campaign debate Monday night, saying, “Every time you’ve offered an opinion you’ve been wrong.” The Republican coolly responded, “Attacking me is not an agenda” for dealing with a dangerous world.

Romney took the offensive, too. When Obama said the U.S. and its allies have imposed crippling sanctions on Iran to halt nuclear weapons development, the Republican challenger responded that the U.S. should have done more. He declared repeatedly, “We’re four years closer to a nuclear Iran.”

Despite the debate’s stated focus on foreign affairs, time after time the rivals turned the discussion back to the slowly recovering U.S. economy, which polls show is the No. 1 issue for most voters.

They found little agreement on that, but the president and his rival found accord on at least one international topic with domestic political overtones — Israel’s security — as they sat at close quarters 15 days before the end of an impossibly close election campaign. Each stressed unequivocal support for Israel when asked how he would respond if the Jewish state were attacked by Iran.

“If Israel is attacked, we have their back,” said Romney — moments after Obama vowed, “I will stand with Israel if Israel is attacked.”

Both also said they oppose direct U.S. military involvement in the efforts to topple Syrian President Bashir Assad.

The debate produced none of the finger-pointing and little of the interrupting that marked the presidential rivals’ debate last week, when Obama needed a comeback after a listless performance in their first meeting on Oct. 3.

But there was no mistaking the urgency. The two men frequently sniped at one another even on issues where they agree, and reprised their campaign-long disagreements over the economy, energy, education and other domestic issues despite ground rules that stipulated the debate cover international affairs.

Obama and Romney are locked in a close race in national opinion polls. The final debate behind them, both men intend to embark on a final two-week whirlwind of campaigning. The president is slated to speak in six states during a two-day trip that begins Wednesday and includes a night aboard Air force One as it flies from Las Vegas to Tampa. Romney intends to visit two or three states a day.

Already four million ballots have been cast in early voting in more than two dozen states.

On the Middle East, Romney said that despite early hopes, the ouster of despotic regimes in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere over the past year has resulted in a “rising tide of chaos.” He said the president has failed to come up with a coherent policy to grapple with change sweeping the Middle East, and he added ominously that an al-Qaida-like group has taken over northern Mali.

Anticipating one of Obama’s most frequent campaign assertions, Romney said of the man seated nearby, “I congratulate him on taking out Osama bin Laden and taking on the leadership of al-Qaida. But we can’t kill our way out of this. … We must have a comprehensive strategy.”

More than a half hour later, Obama returned to the subject, saying that Romney had once said it wasn’t worth moving heaven and earth to catch one man, a reference to the mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks.

He said he had decided it was “worth heaven and earth.”

Obama said he had ended the war in Iraq, was on a path to end the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan and has vowed to bring justice to the attackers of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi last month — an assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

He also jabbed at Romney’s having said during the campaign that Russia is the United States’ No. 1 geopolitical foe.

“Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy you seem to want the policies of the 1980s, just like you want to import the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies in the 1920s,” Obama said.

Obama was snippy after Romney, criticizing the administration’s Pentagon budget, said disapprovingly the U.S. Navy has fewer ships than at any time since the end of World War I.

“I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example, that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets because the nature of our military has changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers where planes land on them.”

Romney offered unusual praise for Obama’s war efforts in Afghanistan, declaring the 2010 surge of 33,000 U.S. troops a success and asserting that efforts to train Afghan security forces are on track to enable the U.S. and its allies to put the Afghans fully in charge of security by the end of 2014. He said that U.S. forces should complete their withdrawal on that schedule; previously he has criticized the setting of a specific withdrawal date.

The two men are locked in a close race in national opinion polls. The final debate behind them, they intend to embark on a final two-week whirlwind of campaigning. The president is slated to speak in six states during a two-day trip that begins Wednesday and includes a night aboard Air force One as it flies from Las Vegas to Tampa. Romney intends to visit two or three states a day.

Already four million ballots have been cast in early voting in more than two dozen states.

Barring a last-minute change in strategy by one campaign or the other, Obama appears on course to win states and the District of Columbia that account for 237 of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. The same is true for Romney in states with 191 electoral votes.

The battlegrounds account for the remaining 110 electoral votes: Florida (29), North Carolina (15), Virginia (13), New Hampshire (4), Iowa (6), Colorado (9), Nevada (6), Ohio (18) and Wisconsin (10).

The televised debate brought no cessation to other campaigning.

Obama’s campaign launched a television ad in Florida that said the president ended the war in Iraq and has a plan to do the same in Afghanistan, accusing Romney of opposing him on both. It was not clear how often the ad would air, given the fall’s overall focus on the economy.

Vice President Joe Biden, campaigning in Canton, Ohio, emphasized differences between the two candidates on the war in Afghanistan.

“We will leave Afghanistan in 2014, period. They say it depends,” he said. “Ladies and gentlemen, like everything with them, it depends. It depends on what day you find these guys.”

Romney’s running mate, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, was in Colorado. “We are in the midst of deciding the kind of country we’re going to be, the kind of people we’re going to be, for a generation,” he said.

Whatever the outcome of the final face-to-face confrontation, the debates have left an imprint on the race. Romney was widely judged the winner of the first debate over a listless president on Oct. 3, and he has risen in polls in the days since. Obama was much more energetic in the second.

Monday night marked the third time in less than a week that the president and his challenger shared a stage, following the feisty 90-minute town-hall-style meeting last Tuesday on Long Island and a white-tie charity dinner two night later where gracious compliments flowed and barbs dipped in humor flew.

At the Al Smith charity dinner, Obama previewed his all-purpose fallback to criticism on international affairs.

“Spoiler alert: We got bin Laden,” he said, a reminder of the signature foreign policy triumph of his term, the death at the hand of U.S. special operations forces of the mastermind behind the terror attacks on the United States more than a decade ago.

The president and his challenger agreed long ago to devote one of their three debates to foreign policy, even though opinion polls show voters care most about economic concerns.

Growth has been slow and unemployment high across Obama’s tenure in the White House. Romney, a wealthy former businessman, cites his experience as evidence he will put in place policies that can revive the economy.

In recent weeks, the former Massachusetts governor has stepped up his criticism of the president’s handling of international matters, although his campaign hasn’t spent any of its television advertising budget on commercials on the subject.

In a speech earlier this month, Romney accused the president of an absence of strong leadership in the Middle East, where popular revolutions have swept away autocratic regimes in Egypt and elsewhere in the past two years. He has also accused Obama of failing to support Israel strongly enough, of failing to make it clear that Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon and of backing cuts in the defense budget that would harm military readiness.

Yet Romney has stumbled several times in attempting to establish his own credentials.

He offended the British when he traveled to England this summer and made comments viewed as critical of their preparation for the Olympic Games.

Democrats pounced when he failed to mention the U.S. troops in Afghanistan or Iraq during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in late August, and officials in both parties were critical of his comments about the attack in Benghazi while the facts were unknown.

The Commission on Presidential Debates says that people will ask questions on foreign or domestic issues. Each candidate will have two minutes to respond, then moderator Candy Crowley of CNN will have an additional minute to “facilitate a discussion.”

Here’s the NewsHour Live Stream:

Debate chat from NPR:

Fact check the debate while it’s going on — or immediately after:

• Factcheck.org
• Politifact.com

Here’s our list of live blogs:

• NPR
• PBS NewsHour
• Forbes
• Scripps
• The Guardian (UK)
• The Economist
• NY Times

Kennedy-Nixon, the first televised debate. (Courtesy National Park Service)

After months of campaigning — and days of surrogates’ efforts to lower expectations of their guy’s performance — it’s finally time for the first presidential debate. The political duel is being held at the University of Denver.

While there are many, many relevant sites we can steer you to around this event, we’ve chosen to put WNYC’s Interactive debate bingo front and center. You can thank us later, after the 25th time one or both candidates have used the phrase “make no mistake” before looking into the camera and gravely declaring just how the other guy is going to ruin the country if we make the awful mistake of electing him.

Here’s what looks to be a curated list of debate tweeters by Twitter, running the political gamut from Ann Coulter to David Axelrod, plus many in-betweens.

You can watch the debate online via PBS NewsHour:

You can also watch ABC News/Yahoo coverage live online on YouTube…

For non-English speakers, Univision will be streaming live in Spanish.  And for non-English speakers or those hard-of-hearing, PBS NewsHour and crowd-sourced subtitling site Amara are translating in multiple languages. Those videos will be available here after the event.

We’ve also aggregated some live blogs. Pick your political persuasion…

• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Forbes
• San Jose Mercury News
• CNN
• ABC News
• CATO Institute
• Wall Street Journal
• Talking Points Memo
• National Review
• Denver Post

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson addresses Obama faithful at Everett and Jones restaurant in Oakland. (Photo: Caitlin Esch)

NAACP volunteer Gayle Akins pitches a table and spreads out voter registration forms at an anti-violence rally outside Oakland City Hall. She’s capitalizing on the support that President Barack Obama inspires locally: many new voters are registering simply to cast a vote for him.

“Sometimes they act like, ‘I don’t know if my vote counts,’ but they know a lot about what’s going on,” Akins says. “If we can convince them — register to vote — and actually get out to vote … it’s a really good thing.”

Still, many African-American voters are frustrated. Four years ago, Oakland resident William Edwards says he was thrilled when Obama won. But Edwards has fallen on hard times; his home is in foreclosure, and he doesn’t think Obama is paying attention to the concerns of his community — things like too few jobs and too many African American men in prison.

“He’s got probably 95 percent of the black vote, but it’s nice to vote and support him,” Edwards says. “But, what are we gonna get for it? Everybody else has an agenda of what they wanna get. So what’s in it for us?”

Oakland Civil rights attorney Eva Paterson has had her own disappointments over the past four years, but she says the black community’s romance with the president has given way to something else.

“It’s almost like dating,” Paterson says. “You date someone and they show their great side, and you get married and it’s like ‘oh, they don’t pick up their socks…’ So, I think we’re in the marriage stage of the relationship –where you still love the person but you see their flaws. You’re not as head over heels as you were. Because he was pretty amazing. And he still is pretty amazing.”

Paterson believes it’s up to black voters to put in the extra work to make the marriage last — calling in support of Obama or working in swing states where votes will be critical.

Volunteers were doing just that in the back room at Everett and Jones Barbecue restaurant in Jack London Square, as part of a recent phone-a-thon to support the president. Owner Dorothy King had brought her family along.

Later in the evening, Obama supporters gathered there to cheer on the president during his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention.

Enthusiasm was high, but local leaders — like Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson — took the stage after to warn the crowd not to get overconfident.

“So while we’re feeling real good about tonight’s speech,” Carson told the crowd, “the work has to be done from this time, until after the election has taken place.”

Carson says four years ago, more Bay Area volunteers were traveling to battleground states to register voters. This time around, he’s worried enthusiasm is waning.

“The energy level is not as high as it was when Obama ran four years ago,” Carson says. “The economy has affected a lot of people, and they thought that he was going to be able to come in and wave a magic wand and make things much better.”

But others in Oakland, like Reverend Daniel Buford, say the president has exceeded expectations. Buford isn’t shy about preaching for Obama.

“I think the brother—and I’m gonna call him that—I think the brother has done an outstanding job,” Buford enthused.

This time four years ago, Buford doubted Obama would make a good president.

“I was for Hillary. I had to really climb a hill to support Obama because I thought he was thin in the resume,” Buford said. “But he got the bad guy, Bin Laden. He stopped the hemorrhaging of the economy. And he’s been doing something for health care. That’s been needed to be done for years.”

If Buford is successful in rallying his parishioners to get out and vote, many local leaders are hoping those voters will affect change closer to home. At the polls they’ll also weigh in on Proposition 30, which would raise state sales tax and income tax for the wealthy, largely to fund education and Measure B, which would extend a local half-cent sales tax for public transportation.

Back at her voter registration table, NAACP volunteer Gayle Akins is keen to convince young voters they can make a difference.

“It’s not just about Obama. And it’s not just about Mitt Romney,” she says. “Because if Obama gets in, he’ll have four years and then we’ll have someone else in. So they really need to know the issues and why it’s important to vote.”

Akins says while young people may show up for Obama, she’s hoping to turn them into voters for life.

Listen to Caitlin Esch’s story

PBS NewsHour has complete online coverage and analysis.

NPR provides highlights of each day’s speakers, profiles, news and features as well as live radio coverage starting Tuesday at 6pm PT.

KQED’s Forum hosted an hour-long discussion about the Democratic convention with Representative Barbara Lee, Democratic political consultant Chris Lehane, John Perez, speaker of the California Assembly and Robin Abcarian, reporter for the Los Angeles Times.

Listen to Forum here:

More sources:

Politico

Fox News

Fox News Latino

CNN

C-Span

And here is the PBS video feed:

Scott Shafer reporting in the Inland Empire

The California Report’s Scott Shafer just returned from the first stop on a statewide “listening tour” to take the pulse of California voters this election year.

The November election is shaping up to be a referendum on government… “How much government do we want? And who’s going to pay for it?” So we’re framing our election coverage with the question “What’s Government For?”

In Riverside and San Bernardino counties, Shafer heard some surprising answers, such as Republicans feeding the poor and asking government to do more. And he found that the region’s elected officials don’t yet reflect the changing political complexion of its current population.

In the presidential lounge at Riverside’s Mission Inn hang portraits of the presidents who have visited over the years. All but one are Republicans. And the Inland Empire has long been a bastion of the GOP. Four years ago, though, voters went for Barack Obama.

Shafer found that many of the new Democratic voters are transplants from coastal cities like Los Angeles. And many of them are Latinos. But low voter turnout prevents them from having the political clout they could. Shafer met some folks who are trying to change that.

Take a listen:

California’s Inland Empire

So what is the Inland Empire?

MAJOR CITIES: Riverside, San Bernardino, Fontana, Moreno Valley, Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Corona, Victorville, Murrietta, Temecula

POPULATION: 4.2 million (grew by almost one-third over past decade)

RACE and ETHNICITY: Latino 47%, White 37%, Black 7%, Asian American 6%

MAJOR INDUSTRIES: Warehousing/logistics, service sector, manufacturing, agriculture (once-booming construction and real estate/finance jobs dried up with the mortgage meltdown)

ECONOMIC INDICATORS: 13% unemployment, second highest home foreclosure rate in California, highest poverty rate in California for a metro area larger than 2 million people