Now what?

It's almost over. Tons of money, years of punditry, lies galore. Another presidential campaign will end here in Massachusetts in a little over an hour. Some have argued that the 21-month campaign was a good thing; it gave us a chance to see the candidates in the heat of battle. I think it gave the media something to write about and fattened the coffers of some consultants and ad men. It did nothing for the citizens of this country. It did even less for the citizens of Illinois and Arizona who lost half of their representation in the Senate. This is not a smart way to elect our leaders.

Neither McCain nor Obama will be able to do half of what they claimed as their program. We'll still have the same hacks in Congress. We will have to pay more in taxes. The likelihood of getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 is very low no matter who wins. Clean coal will not ward off nasty climate change. We will not have better and more affordable health care. The budget of the Defense Department will not be cut to any significant degree.

There is a small hope that if Obama wins he will replace the incompetents that are now in the administrative side of our tripartite government. And that may be enough of a first step back to a country that does more than preach to others, a country that does not live in fear, a country that leads by example, a country that recognizes how small and interconnected this world has become, a country that more often than not does the right thing for itself and for the world.