And the Waiting Is Over

I was in the middle of drafting a blog post entitled “And Still We Wait” when I heard a shriek from the other room. My wife had just gotten a text from her sister in Manhattan saying, “People are cheering outside!” She then turned on the TV and saw that Joe Biden had been projected as the winner in Pennsylvania, and thus the election.

Within minutes our neighbors across the street called and invited us to share some champagne they’d just opened. It was a bottle they had earmarked for a Hillary Clinton victory four years ago and which had been sitting unopened in their refrigerator until now.

Now we get to see what Trump does next. How much damage can an outraged, puerile narcissist who holds the most powerful office in the world do in 2½ months?

My friend Marty notes how much trouble Trump will be in once he leaves office. He wonders whether Trump will resign the presidency before Inauguration Day so that a President Pence can pardon him of any federal crimes. Of course, that would still leave him open to prosecution in New York.

Marty also hasn’t forgotten that Trump has something like $300 million in loans coming due over the next four years, not to mention $100 million that he may owe the IRS if he loses a dispute over the legitimacy of a tax refund he claimed. He wonders whether Trump will sell state secrets to the highest bidder in order to raise enough money to avoid bankruptcy.

Speculating about that kind of thing makes my head hurt. For now I’m just going to bask in the knowledge that Trump will not be our president for another four years. I’m hoping that the rest of the free world can forgive us for having made the mistake of electing him once. They would never have excused our electing him a second time.