Give it up, John

Candidate	Electoral	States Won	Vote %	Votes
Bush	254	28	51%	58,073,612
Kerry	252	20	48%	54,523,310

98% Precincts Reporting - Wed Nov 3, 6:58 AM ET

IA: Bush, 741,325 Kerry, 725,700 with 99% counted

NM: Bush, 335,311 Kerry, 323,691 with 99% counted

OH: Bush, 2,794,346 Kerry, 2,658,125 with 100% counted

AP/ABC

With Bush leading by 145,000 votes and roughly 190,000 yet to be counted, one top Kerry adviser said the Democrat's chances of winning Ohio, and with it the White House, were difficult at best.

Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, signaling that the party still hoped to win the close-fought U.S. election, said early on Wednesday that it would "fight for every vote."

Washington Post

Four years later, it is still a divided country -- perhaps more sullenly than ever -- but as a long election night bled into morning the evidence was clear that it is becoming a more Republican one.

President Bush, his fate for winning a second term still officially uncertain, commanded the popular-vote majority that eluded him in 2000. And in an impressive run of battleground states, he seemed to win validation for a campaign that unabashedly stressed conservative themes and reveled in partisan combat against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.

On the same night, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate and had the Democratic leader on the ropes. It seemed likely they would also make gains in the House, as voters in an age of terrorism seemed to let go of their 1990s preference for divided government and gave a narrow but unmistakable mandate for the GOP.

These gains came in the face of what Democrats for months had been touting as important advantages: a party unified early around its nominee, an energized base filled with grievance against the incumbent, unprecedented fundraising and voter mobilization efforts. They came despite some stiff headwinds for Bush, including a steady stream of bad news out of Iraq and a weak record on jobs.

The results are "an indication that we still are clearly a divided nation," said John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at California's Claremont McKenna College. But he added that Bush's strong performance in Florida and a clear tilt his way in Ohio, combined with the GOP strength in Congress, means that this rough parity has gained a more "Republican edge."

According to this post at FR:

Based on graphic on front page of USA Today:

Media (USA Today, NYT, CBS, ABC) and others are not only refusing to call Ohio with 100% in and 145,000 margin -- The same thing is happening in New Mexico:

New Mexico With 1% of vote out:

Bush 335,226 = + 11,636 Kerry 323,590 Nader 3,568 ------- Total 662,584 1% of total = 6,624

Bush is ahead 11,600 and only appx 6,600 more votes possible?? If Kerry got them all Bush would still win by 5,000 votes.

Similar deal in Iowa.

As someone else said, they don't want to call ANY remaining state REGARDLESS of the vote because it would remove the possiblity that Kerry could win without Ohio, which is his "reason" for not conceding.