For a political scientist writing about the results, consequences, and implications of an election on Election Day, is almost as risky as a meteorologist predicting the weather; except that in the latter case it is in the hands of nature while in the former it is up to human foibles. There appear to be, nevertheless, a number of clear conclusions — concerning both process as well as substance — that one can draw from this intense and extended campaign season. Hopefully, they will not make this observer look totally foolish after the results are tallied.

Consider the following issues, which ought to shock and embarrass the American people:

• It is truly outrageous that more than $2 billion has been raised and spent in this “off-year” election.
  
  
• Six years after the 2000 presidential election kept the nation on hold for 36 days, there are still major problems with voting machine irregularities. Considering the advanced nature of modern American technology it would hardly be unreasonable to assume that Congress and the administration could have developed a system more foolproof than the old-fashioned paper ballot.
  
  
• Although negative advertisements and campaigns reached a nadir in 2006, it is entirely possible that the wordsmiths and creative Madison Avenue artists will insult the American people even further in 2008.
  
  
• Misuse, overuse, and abuse of telemarketing techniques and robo-calling have created an alienated voter who may never again respond to a political call.
  
  
• The electoral system needs to find a way to more effectively and expeditiously deal with the dramatically increasing number of absentee ballots as a result of the transient and moving population.

ON A SUBSTANTIVE level, there were serious issues which emerged and there were also critical matters concerning the behavior of the American voter.

• • It is definitively clear that the war in Iraq has become deeply troubling to Americans of all political stripes. There is a clear distrust or disappointment in the Bush administration’s inability to bring Iraq under control or find a way to exit or slow the number of American casualties.
  
  
• The Bush administration’s conduct of its war on terror has lost supporters in droves. The public no longer feels more secure, reassured, or “in good hands,” as it did after 9/11.
  
  
• The social agenda — the polarizing, domestic “values” issues that the Republicans had so effectively driven to victory in 2004 — are still strong but are beginning to develop seepage. Abortion was a galvanizing issue in South Dakota, but the decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court on gay marriages just weeks before the election never became the determinant issue in the state’s very close Senate race. Similarly, candidates throughout the country did not hesitate to engage the issue of stem-cell research. While the debate became very ugly, neither side retreated from its position.
  
  
• The voting public still views the economy as the bread-and-butter question. Energy prices went down and gas pump prices dropped by over a third since the summer, yet the voters still believed those in power were not doing enough to help the economy.
  
  
• This off-year campaign was not nearly as “local” as usual. In fact, a strong case has been made that this year’s election was indeed a debate about national issues and whom to hold accountable for Iraq, the economy, and Washington’s climate of corruption.

FINALLY, THIS CAMPAIGN season underscored some recent trends about the political behavior of the American voter.