October 30, 2008

Here’s the lurking fear of anyone (in other words, each of us) who has been obsessing over this presidential campaign for what seems like decades: What are we going to talk about when it’s over?

It’s hard to remember a presidential campaign that, for better and worse, so captivated and outraged so many people. A historical face-off between two trailblazers — the first woman and the first black man to vie seriously for the top spot on a national ticket — now ends with a generational showdown amid a national economic crisis.

The campaign brought out the worst in us — gullibility in the face of rank rumors, complacency in the face of invective and character assassination, and culpability in a culture that cares more about personality than policy, and turns side shows into the main event.

But there was also a positive side to the campaign. It saw a deep engagement with politics that led to soaring TV ratings, impassioned public and private debate, increased voter registration, and even a revival of the art of political humor. Poll-watching now joins fantasy league football and American Idol as national obsessions, and to the degree that they each bring families together in shared enterprises is hardly a bad thing.

Of course, the campaign was a warm-up for the real thing, which is the voting itself. And at last, on Tuesday, the voters will have the chance to decide and perhaps silence the pundits and operatives who have dominated this too-long campaign. That’s where we come in — heading to our local polling places and casting a ballot not just for a candidate, but for democracy itself.

New Jerseyans like to curse the Electoral College and bemoan the fact that the presidential candidates take our blue state for granted. But there are many more races than that for the White House, and it is important that each of us has a say.

See you at the polls.

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