BLUES.(The Talk of the Town)(presidential elections)

Philip Gourevitch on the search for a mandate

Nancy Franklin on Election Night coverage

James Surowiecki on the ownership society

Here in the bluest borough of the bluest city of the bluest state in all our red-white-and-blue American Union, it has not been a happy week. A cocktail of emotions was being felt in these parts after last week's Presidential election, and the most potent ingredient was sadness. We've got the blues, and we've got 'em bad.

The grief that so many felt at Senator Kerry's defeat was quite unexpected, and profound enough that, for the moment at least, it held off bitterness and recrimination. On both sides, this ...