The day after the election. It's morning in Patria!

To borrow Reagan's 1984 campaign slogan. As Campaign 2010 transitions into the 49th Congress-elect, the dust (not the hanging chads) from the election is beginning to settle. The Positive Possibilities coalition can claim 199 seats (78 Amrita, 63 Chakra, 33 Social Democrat, 18 Green, 7 Lilith). If they can get the support of half the 50 SRMers elected, they will have the two-thirds super-majority required for key ratification votes in the 333-seat Congress. With 50 seats, the SRM holds a huge chunk of the balance of power. The macho-man National Union pretty much lost one of its testicles. Cut in half, from 70 seats in the 48th Congress to only 35 in the 49th. Light up another Marlboro, NU man!

Best case scenario, the Diet Coke Party gang can count about 100 votes (50 SRM, 35 NU, 8 Libertarian, and the handful of one or two-seat right-wing fringe parties). Diet Coke Party or no, the SRM will continue to push hard in the new Congress for Patria-first economic nationalism and Gandhi-style non-violent resistance against globalism. Will the PosPos be open, ready, willing to listen? Not to mention the other parties that have been vilified as "leftists", "progressives", "tax and spenders" and of course, that dreaded L-word "liberals"?

The have-a-take-don't suck smack-talking Jungle Party, which is unlikely to throw in its lot with either the PosPos or Diet Coke, jumped from 12 to 20 seats (and possibly one more, pending results of re-count). The results of the Smack-Off on April 23 will determine which Clones will fill these seats along with Jungle Party house leader Jim Rome and "Mr. Automatic" J-Stew.

Next task is for the 48th Congress to return from pre-election recess for a final lame-duck session. The first item on the 4·XLVIII order paper is to certify the results of the election, pending judicial re-counts, which in any case only involve one or two fringe party seats in backwater precincts. This ain't Florida in 2000!