Well, it's all over but the crying, and now it's time to cast our gaze into the mirror and behold what we hath wrought. I'll start with an admission: I was wrong. I thought the Cobb Field/Heights Pool issue would pass, but it failed (albeit by a somewhat slim margin). I suppose I should feel happy about that, in light of my recent rant, but I really don't. It only proves Billings voters prefer to put their money where their back pockets are: they won't support the library, the schools, or the arts (in my previous post, I forgot the arts measure that failed last year), and now we can add baseball and swimming to the list. If someone miraculously developed a plan that would demonstrably end all worldwide war, famine and suffering for just $2 per year, I have to think Billings voters would reject it as too costly.

Statewide, the big news has to be the race for Governor. It's Brown vs. Schweitzer in a Battle Royale, folks. Bob Brown seems a nice enough sort: humble, well-spoken, even a bit humorous. But he looks more like a huggable family patriarch than a governor; every time I see him speaking, I keep expecting him to start handing out samples of Grandpa's wonderful butter candy.

Schweitzer, on the other hand, would do P.T. Barnum proud: the man knows how to put on a show. He's a passionate speaker with a great presence, a willingness to buck the system, and a flair for dramatics (hey, this is the Democrat who picked John Bohlinger, a middle-of-the-road Republican, as his running mate). Still, Schweitzer reminds me a bit too much of Greg Stillson, the presidential candidate from Stephen King's "The Dead Zone." Behind that aw-shucks-I'm-jes-a-farmer-from-Whitefish schtick, you just know he's nuttier than a Snickers, and would probably blow up the world if given the chance.

Let the gamesmanship begin.