I first knew that the election season was messing with my head when I officially named my left hand "Mitt" and my right hand "Romney," and started picking fights with co-workers by asking them, "Would you like to speak to the governor?"

Two excruciatingly long years of tense primaries, Rudy Giuliani, Hillary drama, Chuck Norris rallies, George Will columns, talking heads, talking taxes, community activists, Mike Huckabee bass solos, convention bounces, Saturday Night Live specials, Palin parodies and "yes, we can, yes, we can, yes, we can" came to an end on Tuesday.

Writing about politics can be dangerous, I realize. Nothing quite riles up the passions of our readership like a discussion on the presidential election, which is as good of a reason as any to have names for both of your fists.

Hopefully, though, no "Mormon Mayhem" will be necessary when Isay that, personally, I thought our country would have benefited by having either of these men, Sen. John McCain or Sen. Barack Obama, as our president.

McCain is one politician who Ihave respected for most of my adult life. He's earned his reputation as someone who doesn't let his party affiliation get in the way of standing up for whatever issue he believes in. Yes, the term "maverick" was used so much during this season that it became a punchline, but he truly has earned the monicker during the course of his career.

He can work on both sides of the aisle, and his presidential campaign of 2000, run on the wheels of the Straight Talk Express, represented a remarkably different approach to how politicians could speak, open and honestly, to the public.

Ithink it was regrettable that so many Obama supporters demonized McCain to the level they did. McCain has certainly earned the right to lead our country, and it breaks my heart to see him fall short.

On the other hand, Obama represents a glorious new day in America. We saw, this week, something many of us thought we might never see. Ablack man, a person of mixed races and origins, threw his name into the hat, and a majority of American voters came together and overcame the ugly prejudices of our past and proved the very creed our union was created upon, that all men are truly created equal.

Some may worry about his inexperience. But maybe, in a time when our political structure seems flawed and broken, someone who is relatively fresh to that system and not yet cemented into Washington's bedrock is exactly what we need to change course.

It's been such a long, hurtful political season. Everybody's got black eyes and bruised feelings. But finally, it's over, and nothing's more American than extending a hand to your opponent and saying, "Job well done."

And Ihope we can all step back now and look at this election season, where a woman and a black candidate were the last two left standing in the running for the Democratic ticket, where another woman stood as the Republican candidate for vice president, where two men ran for president in a race that didn't seem like a choice between the lesser of two evils.

Job well done.

(Reach columnist Kelly Hagen at 250-8259 or kelly.hagen@bismarcktribune.com.)