How do you plan to spend Election Night?

Hmm, maybe I should catch up on my sudden backlog of unwatched episodes of The Wire. Great entertainment, and a message depressing enough to suit tomorrow night's worst contingencies. (I've already seen season five, so as I've caught up on seasons one through four, I already know how things turn out for the wily and strangely charming Proposition Joe [Robert F. Chew, above]).

by Ken

So, how do you plan to spend Election Night? Partly I'm curious, and partly I'm looking for guidance. I haven't figured it out for my own self yet, and time is getting short.

I suppose I could latch onto some liberal-symp group preparing to make whoopee. But I'm not so good in groups, especially groups of strangers.

And most of all, I'm consumed with secret terror about the outcome tomorrow.

Oh, I know all about the polls, and all the even more encouraging private polls. Of course I know logically that it should be a GOP rout. And yet, deep down, I don't know. I guess I'm so used to Election Day horror shows that my psyche naturally gravitates to scenarios whereby it all comes undone.

Remember, we were being told in 2004 that Kerry was gonna win.

And besides, I can't forget that:

(a) there are going to be a lot of really terrible Democrats among the winners,

(b) the Democratic congressional leadership has yet to show that, even if it gets substantially larger majorities, it holds any priority higher than showing Corporate America that it can be just as stoogelike as that other party they usually support,

(c) the problems facing President-elect Obama (I don't even want to think about the alternative) are so monumental that even if it turns out that I'm comfortable with his proposed solutions (not at all a sure thing given our ideological gap), can anyone cope with the wreckage)?, and, perhaps most worrying,

(d) the McCranky campaign's strident, even violent across-the-board rejection of every vestige of reality and decency has almost certainly hardened some 40-45 percent of the electorate into a blood-oath-sworn commitment to lies, delusion, ignorance, hatred, and obstruction -- is this country even going to be governable?

A good part of me just wants it to be over, one way or another. If it all goes well, there will be plenty of time to celebrate -- after taking some really deep breaths of relief. If all doesn't go well, well, won't that be easier to absorb in one crushing blow than to spread out the agony over an indefinite period? My even more distrustful friend Peter has applied this attitude as much as humanly possible toward the whole 2008 election process. He says just wake him when it's over, and he'll deal with whatever needs dealing with then. (Of course he hasn't been able to completely avoid news of what's going on. Still, I have to admire the ideal.)

When I talked to Howie about this yesterday (in the online era I've wound up spending a good part of a bunch of Election Nights IM-ing with him, but I would be up to even that this time around, and in any case he has commitments for tomorrow night), he asked when I would be likely to arrive home, and when I said that it couldn't be earlier than about 7, he pointed out that by then we may have a pretty good vision of what's happening. The Virginia results, for example, should tell us a lot.

I could go to my (sort of) second job, as I used to do on Tuesday nights before my schedule got upended. There is a TV in the office, but without cable. But I guess tomorrow night even the networks will be in Election Night mode by 7.

I thought maybe this would be a good night to shell out the $12 or whatever ransom they're asking these days to see a movie. I know if I go straight home at some point I'll give in to the temptation to sneak a peek at The Show. I noticed that BBC America is carrying the BBC's coverage -- that might be a way of giving the bloody thing a veneer of civilization.

My backup plan is: Suddenly I've got a backlog of unwatched episodes of The Wire stored up on my DVR, from BET's weirdly scheduled wee-hours rebroadcast. (The backlog is probably in part the result of my now having to spend two and a half hours each weeknight with Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and Jon Stewart.) Maybe this is my chance to get caught up. The show is so amazingly well done that it's a treat to watch, depressing as the overall message is.

Hmm, a depressing overall message . . . I could be on the right track here.

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