It’s Time Already

In a week’s time we will know the name of the next president.

Hopefully. Never underestimate the possibility of 2000 redux.

There are those vexsome Republican-leaning Diebold voting machines. And donkey and elephant lawyers with their briefcases packed. And the whole faux ACORN mess. Not to mention the pissed off hockey moms across the land.

Which is to say it might not be as cut and dried as Keith Olbermann doing the donkey dance in celebration about 2:00 a.m. next Wednesday morning.

But I gotta tell ya. I’m ready for it to be done. Not only because I’m an Obama supporter, and an inveterate pessimist who thinks some Karl Rovian chicanery is afoot that will steal the deal for McCain and that braying wannabe who is otherwise known as his running mate.

These are troubled times indeed. Across the land. Across the globe.

I needn’t tell you all of the malaise that is a pall over all we do. People are depressed, economically and psychologically. The divisiveness of the campaign does nothing but add more symptoms.

So getting it over will be a good thing. Even, dare I say it, if the unthinkable happens: a McCain victory.

Barack Obama’s strategy has been brilliant. And, in fact, just what the country needs, given the vacuum of leadership with which we’ve been plagued. He has been steady, resolute, calming, reassuring. Essentially Obama has been, no other way to say it, presidential.

So let us all pray that the voting goes without incident. That the winner is clear cut. That the loser is generous, supportive and rises above the fetid pettiness that campaigns now engender. That we can wake up next week with a new vigor to do the things that need to be done to get this ship sailing again.

I don’t envy the next president. He will have many tough rows to hoe. His mettle will be tested like no other resident of the oval office in recent years. Lots to do. Minimal resources to get it all done.

But a new face with a new attitude is great place to start.