THE HUM OF THE COMPUTER and the flashing of the screensaver greeted me as I awoke from my slumber this morning. It was 6:30 a.m. But before I drug my bloodshot eyes out of the Cave and into the shop for a smoke and to see the sunrise, I pulled up the fine Kansas Secretary of State web site and checked the carnage. The stifling grip of the fundamentalists had been broken. Hobbling out to the shop with my first mug of three-hour-old coffee I listened to news old-school-way, on the radio. And I marveled.

See, this was my first 21st Century Web election. I had garnered lots of my information and news from the web in addition to my usual sources. I had wrestled with the updates, firewalls, browsers and other assorted computer ailments until on the eve of the election, I could get a live news feed. Bliss o joy and manna for a unrepentant political junkie. Never mind that the Boss and Co. decided to come in to chat with me just when Madame Speaker of the House to-be Nancy Pelosi emerged to claim her new job. It was about the only highlight I missed until the wee hours of the morning whenmy strained eyes could take no more...

As the talking heads droned on in the later morning between the Presidential Press Conferences it occurred to me that perhaps the biggest story of this election has been either grossly overlooked or downplayed. And that is the story of the Web/Internet/Blogger. This election seemed, well, more streamlined. For so many politicians to get the 'message of moderation' that is the New National Mantra can only mean lots of communication. To me this was the Web Election, much like the JFK/Nixon election of 1960.

Except this time the role of the media is reversed: we send the messages instead of some slick-oiled ad hacks hired by the Party Elders.