Here we are, the end of a very long and exhausting road. Election Day is tomorrow. But 100 million Americans may have already voted before Tuesday even dawns. Voting in the time of COVID-19 has been just as different as everything else we've been living through.

One general comment before we begin. This year has seen a "get out the vote" effort that absolutely dwarfs anything seen previously. Americans have been reminded not just to vote but to have a plan for voting for months now, and from some very unusual sources. A few days ago, I actually saw a public service "Go vote!" television ad featuring Cheech and Chong. Younger readers may not comprehend just how mindbendingly weird this is. A more up-to-date reference (although still somewhat dated, these days) would be how jarring it would be to see a "Go vote!" P.S.A. from Beavis and Butthead. Cheech and Chong -- while both blatantly smoking joints -- do a short little pro-vote comedy routine using their signature stoner humor. I never thought I would see such a thing in a million years, and yet this year it's barely even noticed. That's how strange this election has been.

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We'll get to explaining that title further (as if it really needs it), down in the talking points section of our program. And happy Hallowe'en-eve to everyone ("Hallowe'en'en," maybe?).

The homestretch of the 2020 election has been rather bizarre to watch, since President Donald Trump has made his closing argument: "Pandemic? What pandemic? I don't see any pandemic anywhere!"

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In 1973, baseball legend Yogi Berra uttered the immortal line: "It ain't over 'til it's over." He was speaking about the playoffs, but it's really a universal statement that has particular relevance right now. Because tens of millions of Americans just want the election to be over. Many have wanted this for months. And we've still got five more days to go.

We've all been through the wringer this year. We've been squashed flat by the twin rollers of the worst pandemic in 100 years and the worst economic hit since the Great Depression. We've been wrung out and hung out to dry. It's why everyone has been so exhausted all year long.

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President Donald Trump has gotten away with all kinds of things while in office, blowing apart many traditions, conventions, and presidential precedents. He has gotten away with it, for the most part, because very little of it is actually written into law. They're all just a sort of an unwritten code of conduct that previous presidents have all (mostly) followed. But if Democrats do win the "trifecta" next Tuesday and wind up in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, they will be in a position to do something about this sorry state of affairs, in order to prevent any future presidents from getting away with such egregious behavior.

It may be one of those rare times in American history when an incoming president will willingly sign laws that restrict his own power, because the need for such laws is now so obvious and it fits in so well with Joe Biden's desire for us all to return to some sort of normalcy. So allowing Congress to legally define what these norms are shouldn't be too big a problem for Biden.

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So it has come down to this. Do you want to live in a fantasy world for the next four years, or would you prefer reality? President Donald Trump's White House science office put out a press release today that should really go down in history right next to George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner. It lists Trump's accomplishments while in office, and prominently features the statement that Trump is responsible for "ending the COVID-19 pandemic."

Got that? It's over. A thing of the past. Nothing to worry about. The pandemic is finally behind us. We can all relax once again and throw away our masks forever, because our Dear Leader has conquered the virus once and for all. Rejoice!

Meanwhile, out in the real world, 70,000 to 80,000 Americans are getting sick each and every day. Around 1,000 deaths are also happening every day. Due to the coronavirus that has "ended." This is the actual reality, not Trumpian fantasy. And yet the president wants us all to deny it, to the greater glory of him.

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Welcome to our penultimate Electoral Math column. Next Monday, I will post my own final picks for the 2020 presidential election, for better or for worse. And I promise, in the final column, there will be no tossup states at all -- I'll make a prediction even for those I've got to flip a coin to decide.

The biggest campaign news of the past week was the second and final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden. As a measure of how Trump has normalized political chaos, the big takeaway from the debate was that Trump behaved normally. Which was, of course, shocking (for him).

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We are now only one Scaramucci away from Election Day. For those unfamiliar with the reference, a "Scaramucci" is a unit of time measurement equal to the time Anthony "The Mooch" Scaramucci spent as President Donald Trump's press secretary -- 11 days. And we're now only one Scaramucci away from the election.

Also of note, we are now exactly as far away from Election Day as we were four years ago when James Comey essentially threw the election by announcing there were more Hillary Clinton emails under investigation. Trump was saved by this revelation back then, but no matter how hard he's tried to equal this October surprise (by pressuring all those who work for him to create one out of thin air), it just hasn't materialized this time around.

Of course, being just one "Mooch" away from finally seeing the result of this year's long-anticipated election isn't a reason to pop the champagne quite yet. Even if Trump loses to Joe Biden, he'll still have a whopping seven Scaramuccis between then and Inauguration Day to cause all kinds of trouble. So our long national nightmare, sadly, still won't be over, for many Mooches to come.

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The second (and final) presidential debate tonight was as different from the first as it could possibly be. That will likely be the biggest takeaway for both the press and the public. President Donald Trump -- for the most part -- actually behaved himself and didn't try to dominate every single minute. Joe Biden debated the way he really wanted to in the first debate. It was, in a word, normal. Which is why this will be the big headline tomorrow, because whenever Trump does anything even halfway normal, it is big news.

Heading into the debate, the big story was that the microphones would be muted for the first two-minute answer from each candidate. No interruptions would be possible, in other words. But for the most part, this turned out to be largely unnecessary, due to Trump behaving like an adult (for a change). Now, perhaps it was the threat of being muted that reined him in, or perhaps his advisors sold him on the idea that if Biden were allowed to talk he'd just blither on like an idiot and Trump would win the debate. Either way, Trump did behave himself for at least the first two-thirds of the debate, although he did get a bit interrupt-ey at the end.

This allowed for a free exchange of ideas, or at least a free exchange of prepared talking points. In other words, a fairly normal presidential debate. Tonight was much less exhausting to watch, and much more civilized. So I'd have to say the big winner of the debate was the American voter who had tuned in to watch.

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For the purposes of discussion today, we're going to assume that Joe Biden wins the upcoming election. This is in no way guaranteed, of course, but the rest of the article makes no sense unless this happens. Consider it a thought-experiment.

If Joe Biden wins the election, what will President Donald Trump do next? Let's ignore all the expected lame-duckery for the moment (lawsuits against the election results, epic tantrums, Trumpian chaos, self-pardons, refusing to attend the inauguration, etc.) and take the longer view of what Trump will do after Biden is sworn in next January.

Many are assuming that Trump will somehow magically disappear from the political scene. In this fantasy, the Republican Party will wake up from its four-year delusion, shake its head in bewilderment, and then go back to being a normal opposition party in American politics. Biden himself is somewhat of a proponent of this viewpoint.

In more normal times, this might be the case. Ex-presidents are generally known for largely retreating from the public stage and assuming the role of "elder statesman" within their own party. They do not regularly involve themselves in the day-to-day political struggle, but instead take a more gentlemanly approach and for the most part refuse to second-guess the new Oval Office occupant (at least, in public). But these are not normal times, so why would anyone expect Donald Trump to be a normal ex-president? Instead, Trump will likely become what could be called a "shadow president." Now, this requires a digression to explain what I mean by that term, so please bear with me.

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This is the phase of the presidential election when all the pundits start talking about what the candidates' "closing message" either is, will be, or should be. For Joe Biden, the closing message really should be one that has been there all along. In fact, it's the underpinning of pretty much everything Biden has campaigned on, whether explicit or merely implied. It's also easy to state and it is already on the minds and lips of voters everywhere. It is such a simple message that I identified it long before Joe Biden even became the Democratic nominee.

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