Well, the audio is some much some much needed good news today.

How are you feeling?

Are we at brunch yet, folks?

Are we at brunch?

Welcome to Michael and us.

I'm Will Sloan.

Here is always with.

Yeah, Luke Savage, welcome back, everyone.

The takes, they are flying.

The fingers, they are appointing.

The lesser evil has not prevailed.

Yeah, I mean, it's hard to even know what to say here. I mean,

you all know what we're referring to if you're listening to this. I mean, I guess I have been feeling

since the summer that this outcome, you know, there was a decent possibility that Trump was going

to get reelected. And it seems like that's exactly what, you know, what happened.

I did my best to brace against and check against the sort of reassuring narratives we were seeing about how, you know, the polls were perhaps overestimating Trump's support and, you know, polling companies were kind of hedging their bets and overcorrecting for past

mistakes, all that kind of stuff. You know, there was this argument about the 2022 midterm

electoral map and how that suggested longer term sectional trends in the electorate that were going to

just kind of permanently disadvantage Trump and benefit the Democrats. And it just doesn't seem like

the Democratic campaign was really able to capitalize on any of that. The most reassuring thing

one can say looking at these results this morning is it looks like Trump is going to get fewer

votes than he did last time. However, you know, the Democrats are looking to

...