Plus 4 days since the election (#4298)

     As the votes are still be counted the amount of them left to count has shrunk down to a minimal amount. Yet the major news outlets are being slow in declaring a winner. Part of me thinks that they are holding back calling some of the states because the drama is making them a boatload of money. Hey, capitalism is the name of the game right? But I find that that thought is somewhat shallow. The reason is that I can see that their caution makes sense logically considering the closeness of the race and the stakes involved. So like I said in my opening sentence, the amount of ballots left to count have dwindled down so far that the calculus is becoming impossible to ignore not to distinguish a call for a winner.
     This is where we are now with the count. Today sometime we will get to the point where at least 2 of the states will be called and the overall winner will be determined. That winner will most likely be Joe Biden because he is the leader in these last still counting 4 states and he needs the fewest amount of states to achieve the 270 electoral college threshold. Pennsylvania is at the cusp of being called and should likely be the first of the remaining states to be called hopefully before noon today. Because the 20 electoral votes are enough by themselves to put Biden over the top of the 270 threshold. If Pennsylvania is not the first to be called today then at minimum there needs to be 2 states called before Joe can reach the 270 target.
     This dragging out of the winner has been a bit excruciating but all told it is somewhat satisfying. Because the alternative is that trump would have been reappointed and that would have been the worst gut punch any of us could have had to endure. Yes, even worse than the gut punch we got in 2016. The last 48 hours has been obvious to those of us who are watching the vote count that Joe Biden would eventually be declared the victor, well at least most probable. That it has been such a long drawn out process has given everyone time to get used to the fact that Joe, in my opinion, will be elected as our 46th president. What happens to trump going forward after Joe is inaugurated is less important to me than what happens to our citizenry and the progress that we can make.