On the cresting election wave, Sam Wang made his predictions, Cook's here, Nate Silver explained how the GOP may outperform expectations, and Louis Masur hearkened back to history. Fallows thought divided government would kill clean tech, Douthat doubted the importance of immigration, and Evan Osnos read the tea leaves from Beijing. Joe Miller could ride the coattails of the enthusiasm gap, Reid could be ruined by it, and O'Donnell blamed Ladybug-gate on her opponent. Chait, Gelman and Drum debated the stimulus' repercussions on the election, and the Tea Party flunked history. Larison and Avent sorted out the GOP's war machine on Iran, and Larry Ferlazzo cautioned about turning beliefs into principles. We kept an eye on another sane conservative idea on social security and the retirement age, David Vitter didn't want to pay for tax cuts, and Alaskan governor Sean Parnell didn't want to speculate on the age of the earth. On the global front, the foreign press loved to hate the Tea Party, Google wanted to dominate the African market, and the Israeli loyalty oath sparked debates about the country's particularistic worldview. Inside Iraq griped on power price hikes, and the drug war in Mexico was less about drugs than about crime, according to Yglesias.

Zach Galifianakis toked up on television, Prop 19 made a last dash for victory, and Sullum showed why if alcohol wasn't always as bad as heroin, neither was pot. Economies loved delusional participants, Walter Kirn loved nachos on roadtrips, and buying little things made people happy. A megachurch pastor came out of the closet, we wished Bloggingheads a happy birthday, and sometimes nothing could be a real cool hand. No Shave November began, and Stephen Fry, speaking for all men, loved sex more than women. Global reality check here, scariest Halloween pumpkin here, quote for the day here, VFYW here, FOTD here, MHB here, and dissent of the day here.

–Z.P.