Bluer States Coast to Coast (Jon Tester and Me)

Up to now, I've let my skepticism guide my words and moods, not wanting to seem naive about yet another electoral letdown.

But here it is late at night, and after watching hours of "winding up for the switch" blather on CNN, I am online, all over the major news sites, watching the rhetorical curveballs flicker, and even more intently watching the precinct and vote total updates in three states: Missouri, Montana, and Virginia.

Florida: pretty good this year. Ohio: downright good this year.

But then there are these three cliffhangers, all that stands in the way of calling this a perfectly clear mandate. I mean, the mandate is darned translucent already, but taking the Senate as well would make the mandate transparent. Then, with "the people have spoken" crystal clear, then only Bush would be still lost in the fog. Cheney and Rove would already have the serial numbers of every train car behind that locomotive, but Bush would be wondering months.

This summer, I had a little hand in the Tester/Burns race in Montana. I got to meet candidate Tester and volunteered a bit. As a culture analyst visiting from Texas, I even got the chance to be a guest on a Bozeman talk radio show that immediately preceeds Rush in the morning, prime time to do a little Conrad Burns bashing, which I did, saying that he'd become infamous well beyond Big Sky Country, that he'd become a bafoon on the national stage and that Montana could do better.

I wanted Montanans to feel lucky they had a choice and a chance, as opposed to those of us struggling from the heart of the biggest red state in the nation. And tonight, it seems just enough Montanans took the chance and ran with it, as opposed to my own state, still locked up in its currupt, cowboy, corporation-steeped brand of politics.

But in bluer states from coast to coast, what an election!


UPDATE: Here's a Salon article that sums up the Tester victory.