CNN reports that after two years of reading and arguing about the 2008 presidential election, many Americans feel at loose ends or depressed now that the race is over:

When David Kronmiller wakes up and sits down at his computer in the morning, he usually checks the Huffington Post, the Drudge Report, Politico and the polls on RealClearPolitics. But the day after the election, he realized he didn't need to check those polls. There weren't any.

“There is some sadness to that,” said Kronmiller, a North Hollywood, California, resident who frequently contributes his views to iReport.com. …

Nancy Molitor, a clinical psychologist Wilmette, Illinois, started seeing some post-election despair even before the final results came in. Some of her patients wondered what they would do with their time in the absence of polls and campaign coverage. …

Supporters of the winning candidate may feel as if they are going through withdrawal from a drug, Molitor said. They may also develop anxiety over what will change with the new president or become cynical about anything changing at all.

By contrast, someone whose favored candidate lost may go through something similar to grieving: starting with numb disbelief and then moving to anger, sadness and, eventually, recognition of the need to move on, she said.

Pundits and politicos may be hardest hit of all. In “A Letter To The Losers” Dem strategist and CNN contributor Donna Brazile writes:

As someone who knows from experience, I write this open letter to all staff members, volunteers and supporters of candidates who lost last Tuesday. …

No matter how hard you try to contain it, you're both angry and sad. …

Just thinking back to 2000 still gets me upset. Once the Supreme Court ruled and Al Gore made his concession speech, I remember feeling lost and disillusioned.

I was empty inside as if someone had used a vacuum cleaner and sucked out every bit of my passion for politics and public service. I had no idea what to do with my life. Nobody seemed interested in hiring me; the taint from losing closed every door on which I knocked.

For a while, I was convinced I would never be accepted again as a political operative. I had no life beyond politics and no idea how to spend my days or evenings. …

Grieve. Mourn. Let it out. It's like the death of someone close to you, except there's no funeral to help bring closure, just more election analysis and pundits spewing out what you did wrong.

Be gentle on yourself. It will take you weeks to readjust and for the world to appear normal. Let it be a period of self-reflection and trying to answer the unanswerable “what ifs.” But then let it go. In a world of nonstop campaigning, the next season starts now.

The Stiletto already weighed in with what she thought the McCain campaign had done wrong. Here’s what some others think:

Columnist Charles Krauthammer notes:

In the excitement and decisiveness of Barack Obama's victory, we forget that in the first weeks of September, John McCain was actually ahead. Then Lehman collapsed, and the financial system went off a cliff.

This was not just a meltdown but a panic. For an agonizing few days, there was a collapse of faith in the entire financial system - a run on banks, panicky money-market withdrawals, flights to safety, the impulse to hide one's savings under a mattress.

This did not just have the obvious effect of turning people against the incumbent party, however great or tenuous its responsibility for the crisis. It had the more profound effect of making people seek shelter in government.

After all, if even Goldman Sachs was getting government protection, why not you? And offering the comfort and safety of government is the Democratic Party's vocation.

Political strategist Dick Morris tells The Washington Post:

Had McCain voted against the bailout of Wall Street firms and backed the Republican alternative, there is no question in my mind that he would have won. After calling attention to his “suspension” of his campaign, McCain compliantly and supinely embraced the Bush bailout backed by the Democrats. America was waiting for him to speak out against excessive government spending and against bailing out Wall Street firms for their greed.

Some will blame the war in Iraq for McCain's defeat. Others will cite the economic crisis. But had McCain had the courage of his convictions, it would have sent a message to all voters that he was determined to change business-as-usual in Washington.

Okaloosa County (FL) Republican state committeeman Steve Czonstka tells the Northwest Florida Daily News

“I think the Republican National Committee needs a major overhaul.

“The Republican Party tried to make itself a big tent party, but when they tried to cater to undecideds and independents, it came at the price of our principles.

“I believe in a party that favors less government and less spending. We've lost our way in that area.”

As ABC News political consultant and former Pentagon spokesperson Torie Clarke points out this election saw the smallest Republican turnout since 1980, just 32 percent:

“Obama didn't do extraordinarily better with young and first-time voters; the Republican Party's base just didn't turn out. …

“McCain has always had an uneasy relationship with Republicans but that he could not speak to the base of the party raises questions about both his message and the people who were receiving it.

“The party is going to wander around in the wilderness for a while as it works on what its message should be. It will not necessarily be a simple or clean process.”  

Editorial Note: Brazile urges campaign operatives: “Try not to vent and point fingers. It only creates wounds, mostly self-inflicted, and worse, the candidate you believed in and gave your all for doesn't deserve it.” That means those anonymous McCain campaign staffers who are trashing AK Gov. Sarah Palin to FOX News, The New York Times and Newsweek.  Palin rightfully calls them “unprofessional” and a bunch of “jerks.”

According to a Rasmussen telephone survey conducted November 5^th, 69 percent of Repub voters say Palin helped John McCain’s bid for the presidency, and 91 percent have a “favorable” view of Palin, including 65 percent who say their view is “very favorable.” Clearly many Repubs believe she is the party’s future, so how can any Repub operative be so stupid and short-sighted as to completely shred her reputation to make it impossible for her to run for the AK Senate or even president in the future? As The Wall Street Journal puts it:

Mrs. Palin's Republican critics, they might consider if they can afford to write off a young leader with such natural political talent. We don't see a large constellation of other GOP stars on the horizon. Mr. McCain was right to understand that his party needs a new generation of leaders who haven't grown comfortable with the perks of Washington. Especially as Democrats once again grow the Beltway, the next GOP leaders will need to make a better case for entrepreneurship and limited government. Mrs. Palin deserves a chance to see if she has the skill and work ethic to become that kind of leader.

Not to put too fine a point on it, right now Palin is the only Repub woman with any chance whatsoever of making a serious run for the White House. Why are Repubs making the same mistake Dems did in spoiling Hillary Clinton’s chances of being the first woman president? And why does The Stiletto have to wonder once again why John McCain isn’t defending her (second item)?

Obama’s Cabinet Starting To Take Shape

† Secretary of State: Rashid Khalidi

† Treasury: Brian Moore

† Defense: George Lucas

† Attorney General: Susan Herman

† Interior: Martha Stewart

† Agriculture: R. Keith Stroup

† Commerce: Madonna

† Labor: Linda Chavez-Thompson

† Health & Human Services:  Oprah Winfrey

† Education: William Ayers

† Housing and Urban Development: Antoin “Tony” Rezko

† Transportation: Peter Fonda

† Energy: Sean ''Diddy'' Combs

† Veterans Affairs: Joan Baez

† Homeland Security: Dennis Kucinich

Bet She Smokes Cigars, Too: Part VI
 

Police have charged a 14-year-old Andeshia Satchell of Millsboro, DE, with attempted first-degree murder, possession of deadly weapon during the commission of a crime, second-degree assault as well as criminal mischief and trespass after she allegedly sprayed bleach into a 78-year-old man's eyes, then stabbed him in the back and chest as he was leaving his house, reports The Daily Times (Salisbury, MD). Satchell allegedly attacked the man after he refused to give her a ride. The victim was treated at a local hospital for multiple cuts and lacerations, and will require surgery to his hand.
 

DE State Police also say she is also wanted on credit card fraud charges, and is a suspect in several other incidents in the area that had been reported. The Daily Times article did not determine just when in her young life Satchell turned bad or why – but The Stiletto is betting that a cigar was involved.

To read other posts in this series detailing the global epidemic of evil child cigar smokers, click here (second item), here (second item), here, here (second item) and here.

[Hat Tip: The Heel, an Ivy-educated attorney with a prestigious New York firm, and occasional contributor to this blog.]