Morning after: Half of us will be disappointed

'Catastrophic problem for me '
"Honestly, we've got a plan," Mallon said. Her husband looked at her and nodded. "I've got family in Ireland," she said. "I don't feel a part of my country if McCain wins."

Passions are high, too, in the second-largest city in divided Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh is full of neighborhoods where geography doesn't necessarily dictate political stripe. It's not uncommon to see intersections like the one in the city's Morningside neighborhood, where McCain and Obama signs face off across the street from each other in a silent political High Noon. That means that come Nov. 5, someone's going to wake up agitated.

"I can't imagine the level of despair we would feel," said Kyra Straussman, 45, of Pittsburgh, an Obama supporter who works in real estate. "Let me put myself there for one minute: McCain is president. Catastrophic problem for me in every way you could think about it — culturally, spiritually, financially."

John Hinshaw, a historian at Lebanon Valley College in central Pennsylvania, sees a couple things that could dictate the aftermath of Election Day — one aggravating and one mitigating. He says that many people profess after the fact to have voted for the winner even if they didn't, thus leavening the strong reaction.

Perception of unfairness is problematic
But if voters perceive unfairness, which can happen in both thin margins and landslides, that can be a serious problem. "People can say, `It's not my president. It's your president,'" he says. "And that's the kind of stuff that can really weaken nation-states."

Lebanon Valley is one of three institutions doing a study this year on the emotional intensity of the election, comparing people's expectations to their reactions afterward. A similar study done for the 2000 election showed that people who expected to be inconsolable if Al Gore lost actually felt OK when it happened.

"We have tremendous powers to make it seem to ourselves like it turned out the way we thought it was going to," said psychologist Michael Kitchens, who is co-leading this year's study.

If, in the end, Americans are having trouble reconciling their feelings on the morning after, we might consider Return Day, a tradition in Biden's home state of Delaware.

On Thursday, candidates for office — winners and losers — will gather and ride down the streets of Georgetown, Del., together before thousands of people to show that divisiveness need not endure after the election. They even bury a symbolic hatchet.

"All the ill feelings and harsh remarks, all of that is buried in there, and everybody agrees to put aside their partisanship and work together," says Debbie Jones, one of the organizers. "It's something everybody could use."

Reality or wishful thinking, that's part of America's self-image as a land of strong competitors who, in the end, draw together to move forward.

"I respect the process at the end of the day. That's the best part about it," said Kevin Bierschenk, 31, a Republican and a telecommunications project manager in Herndon, Va. "Good losers," he said, "are just as good as a good winner."

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