it's right one a.m. here in olympia, washington and for the last couple of hours i've been sitting here in the dark leafing through the posts that have been trickling in.  i've checked out the huffpo, cnn, politico and msnbc a couple of times to see what else is shakin', and i gotta say, it's a wild ride we're on.  but for the first time in a long time i'm calm.  not because i've drawn any conclusions about the outcome of this election, or that my confidence has been bolstered.  i can honestly say i haven't the foggiest idea who might be the next president.  i've got a peaceful, easy feeling because it occurs to me for the moment that it won't be the end of the world if it happens to be john mccain.

don't get me wrong, it'll suck.  but it won't be the end.  it'll just mean that in four years we try again.  and that will be the most important presidential election of our lifetime, just like it was the time before and the time before that.

i remember in 1980 on the night before carter got clobbered by reagan.  carter made one of his last campaign stops in a airplane hanger at boeing field in seattle.  my parents took me and my brother and sister to see him at the rally.  i remember one of the signs someone had hastilly made:  no nukes, no rea-guns!  and i remember how scared i often was of nuclear war as a kid.  the movie 'testament,' the tv movie 'the day after,' a conversation between parents or teachers i'd over heard or even been part of could really get the imagination going.  it didn't ruin me, but it was no fun worrying about it back then.

today i imagine kids must be terrified of global warming or terrorists or old fashioned war.  i don't see how you could hide a kid from that stuff if you tried.  and i'm sure there are some kids of obama supporters who will be all that much more terrified if he loses.  well i've got some good news for them.  mccain/palin, as bad as that would be, isn't the worst thing that could happen to the world.  and if it does turn out that way, well, we'll try again next time 'round.  and until then we'll keep fighting the good fight, same as we'll have to do if obama is elected.  right now, this moment, i'm cool with that.