EXTRA: So much for endless election

Barack Obama won't have to move out anytime soon. Photograph provided by White House



I couldn’t help but notice something, in the aftermath of all those reports about how there was an overwhelming chance that it would take days, if not weeks, for us to know who won the presidential election.

When I first heard a broadcast report (on the Chicago-based CBS station) indicating that Barack Obama had crossed over the “270 Electoral College votes” mark to win Tuesday’s elections, my clock indicated it was about 10:15 p.m.

THAT COMPARES TO the 2008 “blowout” where Obama’s victory was apparent by shortly after 10 p.m.

The storm known as Sandy caused it to take about 15 more minutes to learn the outcome? That’s not much of a delay. It’s just about insignificant. The real story of the presidential vote is that it was so predictable. Even though the popular vote is neck-and-neck, people pretty much voted as expected.

It ought to go a long way toward reinforcing just how rare, unusual and downright bizarre the post-Election Day happenings of 2000 truly were.

In fact, it seems the only reason that we didn’t get concession and victory speeches until early Wednesday was because of the candidates themselves.

PARTICULARLY MITT ROMNEY, who held off for a couple of hours before making the concession telephone call to Obama, then making the brief speech before adjourning to a consoling session surrounded by his family.

It seems Romney made the mistake of taking seriously those polls his own campaign commissioned – the ones that had him believing there was no way he could lose because they were so technologically advanced!

How could they be wrong?!??

And now, no game today. We can all put our minds to rest – except for having some fantasies about publicly stoning anyone who dares try to talk about who will run for president come 2016.

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