[UPDATED BELOW -- 6:45 P.M., November 9, 2010]

A missile apparently launched out of the ocean 35 miles west of Los Angeles last night, and the Pentagon has no idea what or whose it was. Now, I realize that we've all gotten a bit blasé over such things since the end of the Cold War, but this should really be front-page news, don't you think? If anyone either in the military or outside of it (a private American contractor who builds missiles, for example) got permission for such a launch, the Pentagon really should know something about it -- which they appear not to. Because if this was merely a matter of missed communications, that's one thing -- but any other plausible reason would be truly alarming. And the lack of knowledge at the Pentagon is disturbing, to say the least, when we're talking missiles being launched that close to one of America's biggest cities.

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Democrats in the 111th Congress may be down, but they are not quite out yet. Due to the quirky nature of our political calendar, the "old" Congress will reconvene in a week or so, and stay in session through December, and then the "new" or incoming Congress will be convened for the first time in January. What, if anything, this "lame duck session" will accomplish is an open question. They certainly won't have any shortage of issues to tackle, and this may well be the last chance Democrats get at moving their agenda forward for the next two years. Whether they will take this window of opportunity to do so or not remains to be seen, though.

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An interesting article caught my eye last week, but what with all the election hoopla, I haven't had a chance to write about it before now. But even if it went mostly unnoticed by the public at large, it was an important and downright scathing indictment of the Democrats' complete inability to get their message out, so it certainly fits in with our theme here on Fridays. Some may feel, perhaps, that the word "indictment" is too strong to use here. I disagree. In fact, I'll make the statement even stronger: this article is an absolute epitaph -- which should be carved into the gravestone laid on top of the corpse of the Democrats' efforts to communicate their virtues to the voters in the 2010 midterm elections.

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The 2010 midterm election's dust is finally beginning to settle. So far, I have avoided writing directly about it, mostly because there are so many other "what it all means" opinions out there available for public consumption right now -- which leaves little to be said that someone else hasn't likely already remarked upon. Also, elections are exhausting for political wonks, and I'm just now getting back up to regular speed on things. I must admit, I still don't have an overarching snapshot of the election, or of the future consequences on the next two years. You'll have to forgive me, but my thoughts are still a bit disjointed and less-than-cohesive. Today's column will reflect this, as I weave around the edges of the midterm election's impact.

To prove this point, perhaps, I'd like to open with a song lyric that's been running through my head from the British rock giants The Who. Now, this song has been a rock anthem and a staple on the radio pretty much since the day it was released, but it has recently been introduced to a younger generation for a new reason. I've always maintained that the song contains the absolute best maniacal scream in all of rock history (Rockdom?), bar none. This was duly noticed by the folks putting together a television show a few years ago, so a lot of people now know the song best through the clip played at the beginning of CSI: Miami. But the television theme, while making full use of this wonderful rock scream, mostly avoids the rest of the lyrics. This is no accident, as the song -- "Won't Get Fooled Again" -- is not only revolutionary in nature, but it's one of the most interesting revolutionary songs of the 1960s era. Instead of a "call to arms" or other revolutionary fervor, The Who decided to answer the question: "What happens the day after the revolution?" Which makes it fairly unique, lyrically (I should mention that it's also a great song, but that's really immaterial here for our purposes).

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A mixed bag for Obama

I realize there are other things to talk about on the day after Election Night 2010. Even if you restrict the subject matter to "President Barack Obama," I should by all rights be talking about his post-election statement and press conference this morning. But the calendar is the calendar, and I've already put this column off once for the election (it really should have run Monday...), so here we go with our monthly look at Obama's poll numbers. If you should feel a lack of content discussing the election is going to dissuade you from reading this column, I direct you to the entire rest of the media universe, where you can surely get your fill of that sort of thing today. This will be a more-abbreviated version of our Obama Poll Watch column, because there are so many other things to talk about today. We'll just take a quick look at Obama's poll numbers this month, and then everyone can get back to figuring out what this election "meant."

Obama got a mixed bag of candy and rocks this Hallowe'en, at the close of October. Feel free to make your own comparisons to the mixed election results, but we're talking here about the month leading up to the elections. Obama was out on the campaign trail in a big way, and his numbers were both up and down as a result. Let's take a look at the chart:

[Click on graph to see larger-scale version.]

October, 2010

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I realize that the entire universe of political commentary is going to be focused on the national stories tonight, but since I already posted my national election "picks" yesterday, today instead of adding to the maelstrom of punditry over "what the election means," I'd like to turn to a local issue out here in the state of California, because I think its importance will largely go unremarked by the media (at least outside of the state). It doesn't really have national implications, I admit, because of California's almost-unique laws, but I still feel it is worthy of at least some attention.

There are (as always) quite a number of propositions on California's ballot this year. The one the national media will report on tonight is Proposition 19, which may legalize marijuana for recreational purposes for all adults in the state and set up a battle royale with the federal government over the issue. There is a second ballot initiative (Proposition 23) which would roll back California's progressive environmental law, which is being sponsored by oil companies and other polluters. But neither of these is the issue I'd like to talk about here.

Proposition 25, as I said, will likely have no national implications (as 19 and 23 do). But that doesn't mean it isn't important. What Proposition 25 will do, if it passes, is to change our state laws regarding how budgets are voted on in our legislature. Already, I can feel readers' eyelids drooping, as it sounds like a pretty wonky subject, for which I apologize.

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We're down to the wire with the midterm elections, so it's time to put all the cards on the table and pick the winners of tomorrow's Senate races.

So far, I've shied away from taking a stand on the House races, mostly because keeping track of 435 races is beyond my humble abilities, but I'll even throw a marker down for this one since Election Day is tomorrow. Democrats pick up five Republican-held seats, but Republicans pick up a enormous wave of seats and win the House majority. Final score: 236 Republicans, 199 Democrats.

Since the last time we took an overview of the Senate races, things have tightened up in many of these contests. Mostly, this has been bad news for Democrats, although there are some states firming up in the "D" column. But in our somewhat-arbitrary categories (Safe Republican, Lean Republican, Too Close To Call, Lean Democratic, and Safe Democratic), of the six states who jumped categories this time around, five of them moved towards the Republicans.

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It's that time of year again... the time when we pre-empt our usual Friday Talking Points column here and instead gather 'round the virtual campfire and shove a metaphorical flashlight under our chin, and proceed to tell two tales of horror guaranteed to make your blood run like ice water in the veins, no matter which side of the political divide you hail from.

That's right, it's Hallowe'en season again! Actually, to be scrupulously honest, it's the eve before the eve before All Hallows' Eve, so I guess technically we are celebrating Hallowe'en'en'en tonight, but I will not further use this term because (1.) it is silly, and (2.) it caused my spell checker to have a nervous breakdown.

Both of tonight's bone-shaking scariness hinge somewhat [Cue: Creaking hinge] on the state of Delaware, so here is a gratuitous Delaware jack-o-lantern I carved for the occasion:

This marks the second state-themed pumpkin I've carved over the years (the other one was Ohio (as in "The Night Of The Diebold Zombies"), and I'd like to thank the political gods for giving me state subjects which are fairly easy to carve into a pumpkin. I shudder to think how tough it would be if Maryland or West Virginia were the focus of the political spotlight right now. I'm still recovering from carving the contiguous outline of America last year, if truth be told.

But enough of this nonsense! Let's get on with the scary nonsense, shall we? This year we have two nightmarish scenarios to recount, one from the Left and one from the Right. So, close your eyes and picture us with scary flashlight-under-the-chin lighting, and read on... if you dare!

[Cue: Shrieking and chain rattling, and ominous insane pipe organ music fading in the wind....]

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[Program Notes: This article is going to attempt to pull together two completely unrelated observations via a cheap literary device, just to warn everyone in advance. This is what writers do when they have two things they want to talk about, but only one article in which to speak. We're going to be on a pretty locked-in schedule here for the next few columns, so this is the last chance I'll have for almost a week to just blather about the random thoughts that flit through my fevered brain (that would be GIANTS fever, of course). Ahem. Where was I? Oh, right, just wanted to sketch out the next week for everyone. Tomorrow, Friday Talking Points will be pre-empted by our annual Hallowe'en column, with two nightmares to send shivers down everyone's spines. Monday should be Obama Poll Watch day, but because it is the last day before the election, I will be running the last of the Senate Midterm Elections Overview columns, with my final picks for all the Senate races. Tuesday is Election Day, so there will likely be something or another to talk about, and then Wednesday it'll be a slightly-belated Obama Poll Watch day. Whew! If that isn't enough for CW.com fans (who seem to have adopted the term "Weigantians," which I will use henceforth), I will also be appearing on tomorrow morning's Shock And Awesome podcast with the incomparable T.J. And The Tux, broadcast from New York City's East Village Radio. Tune in around 11:00 East Coast time to hear it (the show starts at 10:00, but I'll be interviewed in the final hour), or download it later and listen at your leisure. Enough of all this shameless self-promotion, though, let's get on with the actual column, shall we?]

Incivility seems to be running fairly high in the country right now, what with heads being crushed under boots by political supporters and whatnot. But the incivility which has me scratching my head has nothing to do with politics. Instead, I've been asking a question which (so far) has remained unanswered, so I toss it out today in the hopes that a sports whiz knows the answer: Why do professional baseball players not shake hands with the other team after the game?

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When ex-actor Ronald Reagan won the presidency for the first time, I became convinced that American politics had become indistinguishable from show business. Nothing that has happened in the intervening years has caused me to change my mind on the subject. But the phenomenon of television personalities throwing their own pseudo-political "rallies" on the National Mall in Washington certainly breaks new ground in both the political arena and the entertainment world, I have to admit.

I'm speaking, of course, about the upcoming "rallies" on the Mall thrown by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, as a response to the "rally" thrown by Glenn Beck earlier this year. I began thinking about the subject a few weeks ago, when a friend of mine asked if I would be travelling to D.C. for Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity" or Colbert's "Rally to Restore Fear" (now combined into one giant "rally"... to restore "sane fear," or perhaps "fearful sanity," one assumes). Well, no. No, I won't. Sorry about that.

Now, I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, so to speak. I certainly don't want to annoy the fans of Stewart and Colbert, who are legion. I guess (to be scrupulously honest) that I don't mind annoying the Beck fans, but they already seem pretty annoyed -- so it'd be hard to even measure any effect my humble column would have on their level of annoyance, I suspect. But someone's got to point out the fact that these "rallies" are nothing more than glorified commercials for television shows. Beck and Stewart and Colbert are entertainers, not politicians or even activists.

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