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Like so many other people in the Gainesville area, I spent the evening off and on last night watching news about the election. Here are some of the random thoughts that crossed my mind while watching the tube and reading Internet newspapers:

You know how some people grow ON you? Have you ever heard of anyone growing OFF you? Mitt Romney had that effect on me, and apparently many other Floridians. He reminds me of Eddie Haskell on “Leave it to Beaver.”

Barak Obama continues to win a remarkably large percentage of the African-American vote, although that was not enough to give him a win yesterday. But I have a difficult time categorizing him as African-American. After all, he is half white. The taxi drivers, as he says, can make the distinction, but should the rest of us, in today’s society?

I was surprised at the vote on Amendment One. That is one I got completely wrong. I think it proves that if you offer people $240 just to walk into polls and vote yes, they are going to vote yes. The State Legislature understands human nature better than I do.

The endorsement of Barak Obama by Teddy Kennedy apparently had little effect on the Florida electorate. I suppose we can say that the Chappaquidik Champion cancelled out the Lewinsky Lothario.

Alachua County had one last chance to give the donkey laugh to much of the rest of the state to our south. Our southern neighbors are using their expensive touch-screen voting machines for the last time. By November, they will have to use machines with a paper trail, just like we do. Of course, we will have to help pay for their new devices.

Early voting was an absolute delight. My wife and I voted at the Millhopper Library last Thursday, and we were in and out in five minutes.

As far as I can tell, none of the pundits or pollsters predicted Hillary’s overwhelming victory last night. They were convinced that Barak was coming on strong, and that no one really liked Hillary or Bill that much.

All in all, it’s fun to live in a completely unpredictable state like Florida. It really makes life so interesting when you never know what’s going to happen next – like, will all the delegates awarded in yesterday’s election really get seated at the conventions this summer? Or will any of the provisions of Amendment One be ruled unconstitutional before we can get our $240?

This is Radio Ralph with a comment at mid-week for AM850.