Look, over there, you can see it from here!
No, not Russia from Alaska, but the finish line.
It's hard to believe not just that the end of the presidential campaign season is actually in sight, but that we're all going to have to find something else to do come Wednesday.
In the spirit of those who have jumped the gun and published their postmortems - or pre-mortems, actually - on a race that won't be decided until Tuesday, I'm already feeling nostalgic for the campaign. Somehow, it managed to capture the worst of both a marathon (the length) and cage fighting (the bare knuckles), and still, I'm reluctant to let it go.
I know I should decry its ungodly length and the endless amounts of time, money, patience and goodwill it has exacted from us. Did you know that in even less time than Sarah Palin has been the Republican vice presidential nominee, the Canadian government dissolved its parliament and voters elected a whole new one?
Do they not have the Internet in Canada? No debates or town halls or rallies or YouTube or Rachel Maddow of their own? When did the candidates find time to make gaffes, recover, exploit their opponents' unsavory associations, be found to have associated with same or, of course, shop for a whole new campaign wardrobe? How ever did the voters make up their minds without chewing through all that? I for one, could spend the rest of the year wallowing in campaignalia. There's just so much of it - 90 percent junk, but, oh, that delightful 10 percent - and I fear I'll go to the polling place on Tuesday not having every last word from Joe the Aspiring Country Singer or whatever Obama relative has emerged in Boston or Kenya.
This, though, apparently is a minority view. Even professional political junkies appear to be crying uncle at this point. To which I say: Wimps!
"The tension of just waiting for the outcome just wears on you," retired Hopkins political scientist prof Matthew Crenson sighed when I called him on Friday. "I click on Real Clear Politics, FiveThirtyEight, Pew, like several times a day. It hasn't been good for me. I've had more productive times."
"It's enough," echoed Larry Sabato, the University of Virginia pundit who has proposed an April-to-November campaign. He fondly recalls the time he lived in Great Britain, where campaigns last weeks rather than years, and democracy didn't crumble under such pressurized decision-making.
