Dole concedes Senate race

Sen. Elizabeth Dole is conceding.

She led off by noting that her "sweet husband," Bob, had a cake made for her with the words "Good luck, Elizabeth" on it.

She thanked her Senate and campaign staffers by name, then, on cue, told a Reagan anecdote about a preacher who asked children to raise their hands who wanted to go to heaven. When one child doesn't, he asks him if he wants to go.

"Yes, sir, but I just don't want to go right now," she said.

She said she enjoyed her constituent work but was never comfortable with the rough and tumble of politics.

"I have to say I've never been completely at home with the boys plotting back in the cloakroom," she said.

Dole recited moments from her long career as labor and transportation secretaries and head of the American Red Cross.

She also took an oblique parting shot at Kay Hagan, who attended a fundraiser at the home of a man who belongs to a group that wants to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

She noted that she recently said the Pledge at a campaign event.

"And yes, we pledged allegiance to a nation, united, under God," she said, to a sustained cheer from the audience.