After a couple days of processing, there's not much more I can add to what some of my fellow bloggers at left have said about the election.

But there was one interesting statement made by Tucker Carlson during the CNN coverage. He noted that after Goldwater lost, the GOP spent some time "in the woods" so to speak, writing and thinking about the party and conservatism, setting a base for the GOP success over the last 20 years or so.

I'm wondering if it isn't time for the Dems to do the same. Not that they need to cede the playing field, of course, but rather that it may be a good time to stop and really think about long-term focus and direction. Right now it's kind of a mess. While he was speaking in a different context, I think Danny Concannon had a point about Dems being bumfuzzled a bit.

Going back to suggestions made by Cooch and Boggie, if you really are concerned about where our government is taking us, just showing up to vote every two to four years may not be enough. I was heartened to read about a number of people my age (and younger) taking time to work at polls, which is a nice break from the string of retirees who usually inhabit polling places.

I would also like mention Dwight and Craig's burgeoning Mascot Party, of which I think I'd have to be a charter member given my Yahoo profile picture. Please note it is the only picture I've ever used.

Sticking with Dwight's comments for a second, I was also disappointed with the skating rink turned electoral map on NBC. Horribly underutilized. I mostly watched ABC and CNN. You'd think it was ABC's first time covering a Presidential election, given the overall lack of coordination. Peter Jennings also seemed to be having a lot of trouble with the touch screen that accessed maps and such. Good thing he's Canadian; his lack of touch screen prowess could have messed up a polling place big time.


CNN was as CNN does, though they were being very cautious with calling states. On the other end, the first call for New Hampshire that I heard came from a guy on our local NBC affiliate. I suppose he had less to lose than a national anchor.