Earlier today John Edwards and John Kerry made graceful concession speeches, and Dick Cheney and George Bush made equally graceful victory speeches.  The emphasis from both sides was on healing the divide we all feel.  Kerry made a great point: "In American elections there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates win or lose, the next morning we wake up as Americans."  It is good form and smart politics for candidates to react this way, but one senses they meant it sincerely.

Of course not everyone was equally graceful.  I enjoyed Joi Ito's post: The people of America have failed us today.  Joi is a VC who was educated in the U.S. and who makes his money from American companies, but is a Japanese citizen and lives in Japan.

Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing posted a purple haze electoral map; an interesting counterpoint to seeing red .

Leander Kelly of Cult of Mac thought the election a Global Catastrophe, and ran a classy picture of our reelected President.

My favorite graceless reaction was from CNN, which ran a picture of Bush named "asshole.jpg".  How pleasant.  Still, I guess you can understand why they're so bitter; they tried so hard to influence the election yesterday.  

Rebecca MacKinnon has great inside analysis of what's happened to CNN...

Jay Rosen noted The Coming Apart of an Ordered World.  I'm not sure what happened with the early exit polls, but something was definitely fishy. 

And how about the way states were "called"?  Logic Times terms it Bias Beyond the Pale:

• Are you aware that the Pennsylvania race was closer (Kerry gets 51.08%) than the Ohio race (Bush gets 51.2%) or Nevada race (Bush gets 51.4%)?  Think about this fact.  Did the networks have any problem calling Pennsylvania for Kerry?  None whatsoever.  Did they have a problem calling Ohio or Nevada for Bush?  Apparently.
• Are you aware that New Hampshire was called for Kerry with 50.7% to 49.3%?
• Are you aware that Wisconsin was called for Kerry with 50.2% to 49.8%?
• Are you aware that Iowa was NOT called for Bush with 50.5% to 49.5%?
• Are you aware that New Mexico was NOT called for Bush with 50.9% to 49.1%?
• Are you aware that Nevada was NOT called for Bush with 51.4% to 48.6%?

Not very "fair and balanced", was it?

I will say most lefty blogs have been graceful, and are constructively analyzing the election.  You learn much more from setbacks than victories.  If the end result is a Democratic party that better represents Americans' views, it will be a victory for the entire country.  Hey, it's the American way.