Nov. 5 Will Feel Like Dec. 26

After two years of high drama, the curtain is about to fall. Letdown, writes Steven Winn in the San Francisco Chronicle, may be inevitable. Tomorrow will usher in a lull like those that sandwiched between seasons of the Sopranos, says one professor: “This has been the greatest series on television. And now it's stopped.” But even when viewers leave and Tina Fey returns to her day job, the show still goes on. There are laws to pass, and a 2010 election to gear up for.

It won’t just be Tina Fey doing something else after Election Day. Comedians are grappling with joking about a president less mockable than the current one. “Some people think it will be hard to make fun of Obama because he's black. I think it's because he's relatively lucid,” Winn writes. A lucid president—talk about high expectations for next year.
(More Election 2008 stories.)