The robocalls have stopped. Television ads have gone from attacks on candidates to the usual pitches for medications and exercises that will enable you to live forever. Political post-mortems are under way. And the 2016 wannabees are lining up financing and staffs for their runs at the Democratic and Republican nominations. This will be a relatively easy task for the Clintons should Hillary decide to make a run, but might be more difficult for New Jersey governor Chris Christie, whose embrace of the president during their televised tour of the damage from Sandy helped Obama to dispel the notion that he couldn’t work across party lines. They say that revenge is best eaten cold, and Republican primary voters just might serve up that dish three or four years from now.

The Obamas don’t have to move back to Chicago, the Democrats still control the Senate, the Republicans still control the House of Representatives, and two fiscal “events” still loom. Before year-end America will hit the debt ceiling, which prevents it from borrowing money to meet its obligations—the ugly word for that is default. Then, as we ring out the old and ring in the new, we fall over “the fiscal cliff.”