Mercifully, the elections are over. The “I voted” oval stickers are tucked away in a precinct closet until the next election, and electronic voting gadgets are carefully stored in a locked cabinet.
Victory parties remain in full gloating mode, and those who lost are licking their wounds, planning their strategy for a come-back run or looking for another line of work.
Voters are thrilled the 2012 elections have come to an end because we’re no longer bombarded with political telephone calls or trying to see a sea of past red, white and blue cardboard signs crowded around every street corner.
We can go back to watching television shows and complain about the number of insurance and hair coloring ads instead of the number of negative political ads.
As much as we gripe about all that aggravation, elections put money in somebody’s pocket, and those dollars help the economy. Newspapers and magazines were happy to take candidates’ money as were television stations, Websites, billboard companies and sign makers.
Pollsters were happy to cash checks for running fictitious scenarios so political action committees could see where to spend their money.
Campaign strategists used high-tech projection software and analyzed minute details from electronic polling to tell their candidate what issue to talk about and where to spend their time and money.
Email and the Internet have been prime players in elections for the past few years. Email blasts from friends and political groups filled our mailboxes. YouTube videos used patriotic music and spliced together videos to make candidates look worse than slimy geezers who take candy from babies.
This time around, Facebook and Twitter became major players as people tweeted and posted about candidates, battling and spreading lies, innuendoes, gossip and slogans.
The presidential debates struck me as which man could get the sharpest jab in. Forget answering our questions about the economy, jobs, pollution and other issues that are tops in our minds. The debates were simply opportunities for one-upmanship.
Now it’s all over. The airwaves are filled with pundits analyzing why Romney lost and Obama won. We’ll be looking at analyses and reports for weeks; and every time a major election comes around, we’ll endure experts rehashing and dissecting this election and this campaign.
And then the presidential campaign of 2016 will swing into gear as potential candidates attempt to make their voice heard in the wilderness as the whole process starts all over again.
A few years ago, I remember seeing a young Bill Clinton and Al Gore standing on the stage accepting the office of the presidency and vice presidency of the United States.
I was terrified, thinking we were turning the reins over to two green-behind-the-ears guys who wouldn’t have a clue how to run this country.
But like their politics or not, the United States survived, just as we lived through sub-par presidents like Zachary Taylor and Herbert Hoover.
We survived Richard Nixon whose paranoia caused most Americans to lose faith in the White House. We survived Andrew Johnson who mismanaged Reconstruction after the Civil War.
We flourished under presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson who laid the groundwork for the United States. We came to admire Abraham Lincoln who fought for equality.
As Mitt Romney said in his gracious concession speech, “I believe in America.” So do the millions of people who cast their vote in the 2012 election process.
For the next four years, Mr. Obama is the president of the United States, the commander in chief. No matter who you voted for, it’s time to move forward. We Americans do that quite well, and we’ll survive or triumph, not only for the next four years but for decades to come.