It's all over

Here's what makes me the most happy about Tuesday's election: It's over. Finally.

I reached my saturation point for campaign politics about six weeks ago, maybe even longer ago. It all became such a blur after a while. And it wasn't just the politics of the presidential campaign. It went right on down the line to U.S. senator, U.S. representative, every one of them. Heck, if there had been a race for hall monitor at the local elementary school I would have had my fill of that one too.

Students of history will tell you that divisive and derisive campaigns are just part of our democratic process. I think the difference this time around is how "viral" it became through blogs and web sites and emails.

It was the politics of half truths and lies run amok. Innuendo was accepted as fact. A lie was accepted as truth. And the viral virility of the innuendos and lies was played out on both sides of the aisles, by Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, antis and pros. As a former boss used to say, "No one's skirts are clean in this one." That Barack Obama was a Muslim. That John McCain was a raging unstable maniac.

We listened to too many absolutes -- that an issue like taxes or privatizing Social Security -- was seen in black and white, when it fact in politics every issue is colored in shades of gray.

It all started to become white noise. It was like what Charlie Brown and the Peanuts characters on television heard when a parent talked: "Wah, wha ... wha-wha-wha."

I saw and heard more ads that told me why I shouldn't vote for someone than I saw ads telling me why I should vote for someone.

No candidate is ever as bad as the opponent describes. Nor is any candidate as good as they describe themselves.

We are imperfect as a people; we are imperfect as candidates.

But campaigns tend to stretch imperfections so far that they become wholly distorted. Take the case of Republican U.S. Senator Elizabeth Dole campaigning for reelection in North Carolina against Democrat Kay Hagan.

Dole's campaign aired 30-second advertisement showing clips of members of an atheist advocacy group. It shows shadowy footage of someone, supposedly Hagan, at a fundraiser at the home of a man who serves as an adviser to the group and the voice of a woman, Hagan's we are led to believe, who declares, "There is no God!"

Hagan is a Presbyterian church elder who teaches Sunday school. Dole lost the election.

Here is a woman, wife of former Senator and presidential candidate Bob Dole, with a wonderful political resume who lost her way. Her moral compass went awry, she went beyond the pale, and we see it time and time again in campaigns.

What to do about it?

Part of the problem was the fact that it was the longest campaign ever, starting back in early 2007. But it's unlikely we'll ever mandate that an election season be limited to -- say -- six months.

For now, take a deep breath. Relax. Go to your happy place. Four years will roll around again soon enough.