One friend, in his concluding email of the night, said "I've taken as much coverage as I can bear. Looks like the country is filled with frightened, stupid sheep." Another wrote something considerably longer on his blog. The common thread in both and in my own mind is the disappointment and fear engendered by seeing that so many people voted for an administration and policies that have been so corrosive. So truly thoughtless.
As I look at the national maps I see that ABC is still holding back on awarding Wisconsin to anyone, but aside from that their map is the same as that posted by CNN. Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio are left unassigned, and nearly all of the attention is on Ohio and its 20 electoral votes - 8 more than the other two combined - where Bush currently has a nearly 140,000 vote lead.
It should have been a rout. Instead, aside from the near-certainty that we're looking at four more years of this -- it's going to be worse than the first four. This term the administration won't even have to slow down to work for its re-election, and with Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist's condition indicating a need for a replacement soon, and the as-yet-unexamined (by me) reports of GOP gains in both House and Senate, the way is paved for the rest of us to be steamrolled.
As noted some hours ago I'm happy that Pennsylvania held out against the Bush/Cheney message of fear. Keeping from giving in to fear and despair of a more thoughtful stripe is difficult. We have little choice but to redouble our efforts as educators and to reach out into the spreading darkness. The fear runs dark, cold and deep, though. How much worse must it become before a majority wakes up and recognizes that the nation is on a terribly wrong path?
Everyone is exhausted. The year's political process went on far too long, and left too many of us battered by decisions made elsewhere. We need to collect ourselves, catch our breath, clean up and recharge.
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