Cue the fat lady...

Will this be my last word on the election, now that it’s over? Probably not...but it’s the last one I’m planning on writing. -BV

In the end, it wasn’t even all that close.

Well, the popular vote was kinda close, with Obama winning by more than five percent. But the Electoral College wasn’t close; not even kinda close. While final numbers weren’t in when I checked this morning, Obama had at least 333 electoral votes sewn up...well over the 270 that he needed. So if you are counting purely by electoral votes, it was a landslide.

But enough of what did happen. Let’s look at a few things that didn’t, things that I (and others) had spoken of as possibilities, things we feared might happen but didn’t.

There was no wide-spread voter fraud, no "hanging chads," no recounts, no Supreme Court selection, no cause to question the results whatsoever. Nor was there any cause given for civil unrest, no need for a stockpile of survival supplies (though I still have that backpack in my trunk).

In short, there wasn’t anything to fear. Not even fear itself. So what was I afraid of?

McCain could have made trouble at the end; he could have vowed to keep fighting, to contest close states, to seek to change the results somehow. Could have, but didn’t. His concession speech was a model of what such speeches should be. While we haven’t seen much of the "old" John McCain in this campaign, the man who earned the title "maverick" and who challenged GWB in the bitter campaigns of the past, we saw him clearly at the very end. It’s a pity we didn’t see that man during the campaign; that man I could have supported (but I probably still would have voted for Obama).

McCain’s supporters could have made a hell of a lot of trouble at the end. They could have risen up in a wave of partisan fury and declared their own results, could have refused to accept the election of Barack Obama. Could have, but didn’t. By and large, they accepted McCain’s defeat, their defeat, with all the graciousness of their candidate.

George Bush could have tried to subvert the will of the people. He could have used some pretext to declare the election results void. He could have caused massive unrest by doing so, and used that unrest to declare a state of emergency and keep himself in power. Could have, but didn’t. His congratulatory speach was briming with pride to have been the leader of a nation where such an election, such a candidate, such a victory was possible (I could even believe he meant it.)

(The above scenario may seem far fetched; indeed, looking back now it certainly does seem far fetched, but this was a real fear that some of us had. Even I have to admit that I thought it possible, if unlikely; read the comments after "Conventional Wisdom part III" to see what I mean.)

Not to mention all of the dire predictions about what might happen if McCain were victorious; dire, but in retrospect unlikely. In any case, they won’t be happening now.

Which only leaves all of the dire predictions about what might happen if Obama wins; though he did win. And frankly, I never thought those were at all likely. I still don’t, but if I’m going to be proven wrong he’d better get a move on and get into his tyrant costume. Can’t wait all year, you know.

The Blues Viking

The opinions here expressed are mine and if you don’t like them you can get your own damn blog.