TAKE THE PLEDGE: Jeff Jarvises pledge, which Michael Totten links below, is a welcome breath of sanity. So, no matter who wins:

I will not proclaim that the president is incompetent for failing to magically resolve some tough geopolitical situation, such as North Korea’s nukes or the Israel/Palestine problem, unless I can propose something with stronger logic to recommend it than the fact that the president isn’t doing it right now.

I will not obsess about trivial details of the president’s demeanor, speech patterns, or long-past personal history.

I will not secretly hope that he fails at important goals so that I can elect someone from the other party four years hence.

I will not pretend that the president’s budget is better, or worse, than it is, which is to say terrible.

I will not attribute magical powers to the president to heal the economy, large-scale social problems, or the growing rift between my boyfriend and myself on the matter of green vegetables. I will neither praise the president for improvement in these situations, nor criticise him for failing to mend them.

I will not point out all the bad news, or all the good news, while hoping no one notices the other sort.

I will ruthlessly make fun of the president’s verbal tics, extravagent promises, and useless programmes.

I will not use my one semester of Psych 101 to make speculative diagnoses of mental disease or defect in the president.

I will assume, until proven otherwise, that the president, like most politicians, is making stupid laws because he wants to appease key interest groups (a.k.a. The American People), not because He Is Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevil.

I will not write long, stupid posts on how the man I voted for, and his party, are wonderful people–intelligent, sensitive, and well-informed–while the other party, and its voters, are a bunch of moronic thugs who want only to Destroy a Once Great Nation. Nor will I deliver such rants in person.

I will not write anything containing the sentence “The administration has hit a new low . . . ”

And if I have to listen to one more such, I’ll pull my hair out, really I will. And it’s such nice hair too, soft and shiny with natural ringlets. So can’t we all just get along?

UPDATE: (From Glenn) Spoons has a different kind of pledge: “I PLEDGE TO BITCH ABOUT WHOMEVER IS ELECTED PRESIDENT.” Always make promises you know you can keep!

He makes a good point here, though: “Don’t support a President just because “he’s President.” He’s a servant, not a king. Treat him like it. Give him exactly the support he earns — no more, no less. If you feel compelled to make some sort of feel-good pledge, pledge to treat whomever wins fairly, and to judge their actions without regard to whether you voted for him or not.”

I think that’s really the key point here, isn’t it?