It's morning in America, in at least the astronomical sense. John Kerry is about to concede the presidential election to President Bush, after a strong campaign that was just not quite strong enough to unseat an entrenched incumbent.
The strong uptick in turnout was very welcome - it is plain bad that US election turnouts have been so low for so long - but I do wonder whether that will be sustained into the next election, or whether the 'new' voters are going away disillusioned. Moreover, the best ground for new voters to come from is the centre - it will be interesting to read the full profiles of the voting when they become available.
The early election commentary is as usual, the back-of-the-envelope notes for the first draft of history. One worthwhile read, however, is Andrew Leonard's article for Salon on the echo-chamber effect of the blogosphere. It is a timely reminder of the harmful nature of such reverberation. The piranha-shoal treatment meted out to news stories on both sides of the fence (see much of the commentary on Free Republic or the WELL) shows the ferocity of belief, and the distrust of the other side can be pathological, not just the rough-and-tumble of politics.
6:55:23 PM 
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