I made it a point not to string the angry/weepy reactions of the wingnut faithful around every nook and cranny of the blog like garlands of popcorn at Christmastime, because eventually they start to go bad and stink up the joint, and who needs that, right? But I must pause and give special pride of place to old friend, George Effing Will. G. Effing is not a crazy blogger, or a WOLVERINES!-crying dweeb who's stockpiling ammo and canned goods for the cominh civil insurrection. No, indeed. G. Effing is a serious thinker, a demi-historian, and a certified member Beltway magi whose job it is to explain to the rest of us how we really didn't do with our votes what we thought we were doing with them. In that capacity, he has written the single stupidest sentence that the results of Tuesday night's election yet have produced:

A diminished figure after conducting the most relentlessly negative campaign ever run by an incumbent, he has the meager mandate of not being Bain Capital.

The management now presents an opposing view from almost exactly 40-and-one-half years ago. Here is Mr. R.M. Nixon of San Clemente and Hell:

When you get in these people... say, "Look, the problem is that this will open up the whole, the whole Bay of Pigs thing, and the president just feels that —" without going into the details — don't lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is a sort of comedy of errors, bizarre, without getting into it. "The president's belief is that this is going to open the whole Bay of Pigs thing up again. And because these people are plugging for keeps, and that they should call in the FBI and say that the wish for the country, don't go any further into this case, period."

Headshot of Charles P. Pierce
Charles P. Pierce

Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston and has three children.