Next...

Now what?

Well, we've still got two wars to fight. I want to see President Obama activate the Texas Air National Guard, call back everybody whose service is in question, and send them over to Iraq pronto.

Also, anybody who had, say, five deferments during the Viet Nam war should be conscripted and sent to the front lines. With the bigger, better Democratic majorities in Congress, it shouldn't be hard to draft and pass the appropriate legislation. Give Cheney a shotgun full of birdshot pellets and send him on his merry way.

Sarah Palin, the exit door from the national stage is thatta-way. Some day, perhaps soon, the bizarre selection of this bizarre personage as a once-great political party's candidate for the second-highest office in the land may be viewed as a beautiful pop art stunt, an electric Kool-Aid freakout of the highest order, a surreal piece of performance art on a par with Salvador Dali arriving at a lecture in a limousine filled with cauliflowers. McCain's identification of Plain Palin as Teh Great Hope Of Th' Republican Party resembled nothing so much as Andy Warhol's cynical, ironic elevation of a series of dope fiends, transvestites and lost little girls as "superstars." Fifteen minutes of fame is just about right. I expect Palin to turn up next on a reality TV show, perhaps sharing living space with Vanilla Ice or one of the kids from Growing Pains.

Who do the Republicans have left? 2012 is a long way off, and 2016 is about a million years away, but who do they have right now? Romney? Giuliani? Arnie? Jeb? Mike Bloomberg? Is Karl Rove going to stitch together some Frankenstein's monster in some dark laboratory somewhere?

John Paul Stevens can safely retire and let President Obama nominate his replacement on the Supreme Court to a friendly Senate.

I would like to see John Edwards play a part in Obama's administration, if he wants to.

The South, seriously, what the hell? Here's the map:


I've said it before: this country actually fought a bloody war to force these Johnny Reb states to stay in the union. At least Florida and Virginia came to their senses this year.