In Al Franken's race in Minnesota, blue and red tangle for the final time in the Bush era.

Read the full story here:

• The Last Recount

---

John McCain ran one of the most incompetent, schizo campaigns in history — and for that we owe him big-time.

Read the full story here:

• Requiem for a Maverick

---

Photo: Raedle/Getty

So the other day I'm getting off a plane in Minneapolis — thanks to Al Franken and Norm Coleman, the long-awaited post-election chillout period never materialized — and I see Sarah Palin's face onscreen on a CNN broadcast in the Limbergh terminal. As side note: It's been a tremendous relief to me personally to see that Sarah Palin has consistently stayed in the public eye since her walloping defeat at the hands of Barack Obama last week. It may be that no American politician will ever again match the comic genius of George Bush, but I have high hopes for the Palin era. True, Bush was a once-in-a-century phenomenon: when he got tongue-twisted and said something stupid, it was also inevitably revealing in a very moving, very profound way. He was a like a cross between Yogi Berra and Confucius, with a dash of Vlad the Impaler thrown in. No matter how dumb future Republican Party nominee Sarah Palin turns out to be — and she's just awesomely dumb — she'll never be able to come up with stuff like "Just because you happen to be not rich, doesn't mean you're willing to kill," or "Make no mistake… I talk to families who die." The truly unique thing about Bush was that his mistakes and malapropisms spanned such an awesome comic range.

(more...)

---

Photo: Tama/Getty
Friday afternoon in the city: I basically needed two days after the election to get caught up rest-wise; when I finally woke up, I found out that Chuck Schumer was already starting to talk about bringing the Fairness Doctrine back. Somehow you knew after Obama won that some of the dumber Democrats would be unable to help themselves and would show up on TV the next day in full marking-their-territory mode, pissing on every Washington tree. In any case, let's hope that blows over — in the meantime, a public appeal:

I'm going to be following Andrew Cuomo's investigation into the Lehman Brothers/Credit Default Swap mess. Since there are undoubtedly some readers out there who work on Wall Street or in the finance world, I wanted to ask anyone who either worked for Lehman or in a relevant field to get in touch with me, strictly for background. What I'd really like is to meet up with someone who can walk me through the day-to-day routine surrounding the trades of those kinds of derivatives, or really with anyone whose job touches the finance world in a way that's relevant to the crash.

This can be a strictly off the record/background type of deal, just for my own edification. Anyway, if you can help, please contact me at this address: editors@rollingstone.com.

More coming next week, gotta run.

---

Photo: Sullivan/Getty

So it's over. Won't have much to say here, since I just got done writing a piece for the magazine following a long day and night of travel and my brain is therefore in full melted cheese mode right now.

On my flight from Atlanta to Phoenix yesterday evening I sat next to a McCain supporter from Georgia, a retired military guy gone into sales. We were both watching the returns come in on Delta's in-flight TV service. When news flashed that the polls had closed in Florida, he turned to me.

"I bet those people in Miami-Dade‚ will be supporting Obama big-time," he said, apropos of nothing.

In Phoenix a few hours later, at a very somber McCain "Victory party," another retired Air Force officer railed against the new regime. Obama, the man said, will "demoralize the armed forces" to the point where "we won't even exist anymore."

I asked him if he really thought Barack Obama would intentionally destroy the military and ruin the country just because deep down inside, he hates America that much. The guy shrugged.

(more...)

---