At last the election is over.  It looks like the general feeling was, "Throw the bums out!" in a fit of exasperation.    Now, at the national level and in MN and probably other states too, the politicians must work through widely diverging goals and agendas to take some concrete steps forward.  The big question is whether they can rise to the occasion or will they fall into serious gridlock.  If they do not make some gains, there will be a frustrated electorate at the next election and it will have one thing on its mind, "Throw the bums out!"  The one good thing is that there are no more political commercials.  It was extremely negative here.