It's hard to resist the siren call of election results [1] because all of us have a vested interest in our candidate getting elected and hopefully the mass of voter fraud that other candidate engages in will be caught and stopped.
But I think instant results in near real time are bad overall—it must totally suck to live in Alaska and have the election all but called even before the polling stations are closed. And if you don't care for Alaska because of that candidate, then what about Hawaii, the birthplace of that other candidate (you know, The One)? It must be tough for citizens of both states to feel like they contributed to a national election.
I'm actually surprised that there isn't a law preventing poll results to be released until all polls across the country are closed (for a national election—obviously for more local matters, results can be issued as soon as the relevant polls are closed). I would think at the very least this would give all parties a bit more leeway to engage in a bit of election chicannery (for those that require a more cynical viewpoint of things).
[1] http://maps.google.com/help/maps/elections/#2008_election