As I write this column we do not know who the next President of the United States is going to be. When it is breakfast time today in Dubai we will still be counting votes here in the United States.
But one thing seems certain as we look toward whatever new administration will take power in Washington a mere 11 weeks from now: the bipartisan good feeling that both Barack Obama and John McCain say they fervently hope to summon is likely to be in very short supply.
Americans began this campaign deeply divided over many, if not most, of the crucial issues facing the country. Any doubt about this should have been dispelled by watching the seemingly endless series of party debates that began in the spring of last year.
Back when there were still eight or nine Democrats and eight or nine Republicans running for president the most striking thing about listening to them was the degree to which they seemed to be addressing completely different Americas.
Republicans, back then, brushed away any talk of a bad economy. Their focus was the country's need to stand tall in Iraq and their main target was the presumptive Democratic nominee: Hillary Clinton.
Economic problems
The Democrats of 2007 did not talk as much about Iraq, since they disagreed only on the speed with which America needs to get out. Instead they harped on economic problems the Republicans claimed did not exist, and talked a lot about healthcare - an issue Republicans tend to avoid.
Two years and a couple of billion dollars later these fissures, if anything, have deepened.
It is, however, this fall rather than last summer (or last year) that explains why 2009 is unlikely to be a year of glowing bipartisan cooperation. In the election's closing weeks each campaign has come to see something dark and unsettling when it looks at the other. The losing party is not going to find it easy to live with the winner.
Obama is, to quote John McCain, "a decent man. A family man." The problem is that more than a few of his supporters do not believe that, and probably are not going to - regardless of what a President Obama may do to win their trust.
A President Obama will find the Oval Office does nothing to free him from the bigots, rumourmongers and Republican bitter-enders who have sought to derail his candidacy.
The closing weeks of the campaign have made it clear that smears concerning Obama's faith, character and patriotism have penetrated deeply into the psyche of large sections of the country. The Right's media machine will do all it can to see that this does not change. These are stories that will not go away.
The key difference between Republican and Democratic anger is that Democrats differ with what McCain has done during his campaign, but Republicans are unsettled by who Obama is - a construction that seems unlikely to change anytime soon.
Should McCain emerge the winner he will face a congress with large Democratic majorities in both houses. A victorious President McCain would probably reach out to the opposition, but few Democrats will be eager to forgive or forget the low-road campaign that brought him to the White House.
In terms of what all this might mean for the Middle East, it is simply too early to say. The region itself is going through a period of unusual flux.
Depressing
Israel can do nothing concerning peace talks with the Palestinians (or anyone else) until after its own elections, set for February 10 (plus the four to six weeks of political jockeying that it inevitably takes to build a government after an Israeli election).
Meanwhile, Iranians pick a new president next June, while Iraqis go to the polls sometime over the next few months to pick local governments - a process that may bring Sunnis into the government in a more substantive way, but which is also fraught with the danger of sectarian violence.
If all of that sounds a bit depressing, remember that everyone in Washington knows this. When you cannot avoid a problem, at least knowing it is headed your way can be some comfort.
Whoever ends up in the Washington driver's seat, the road ahead is likely to be rough.
Gordon Robison is a journalist and consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. He has lived in and reported on the Middle East for two decades, including assignments in Baghdad for both CNN and Fox News.
