Pretty well wrapped up, it appears!

Washington State is doing pretty well, also. A couple of bad initiatives and referenda have gone down to defeat and a couple of good ones have passed. There was a hard-fought battle for state governor, with some of the nastiest campaign commercials I have ever heard coming from Dino Rossi, the Republican challenger. He lost to Christine Gregoire four years ago by a razor-thin margin (something like 128 votes!) after a couple of recounts and a court case. This time around, Rossi got really nasty. So far, the three networks and a couple of news services have projected that Chris Gregoire is the winner (votes still coming in, but she's ahead 53% to 47%). Local news commentators, looking at the figures in so far from the various counties, have said that something supernatural would have to happen for Rossi to pull it out now. Rossi refuses to concede, snorting "We've been here before, and I'm going to win this time!"

High marks for optimism, but low marks for facing reality.

Now—here's the kicker! On the news tonight. A spontaneous—what shall I call it? Demonstration? Well, what's really going is that down on Seattle's First Avenue around the Pike Place Market, there are thousands of people, many with Obama signs, some African-American, some Asian, but the vast majority white—are literally (I mean, they really are) dancing in the streets!! Peaceful, except for the yelling and chanting ("Yes, we can! Yes, we can!"), and the police are just standing around grinning. A spontaneous explosion of sheer glee!

I'm gettin' kinda choked up.

Goodnight, folks. Sleep well!

Don Firth