By BEN BOYCHUK and JOEL MATHIS, Scripps Howard News Service

Congress opened a shiny, new visitor's center on Dec. 2. The $621 million underground complex opened four years behind schedule and $400 million over budget -- hardly extraordinary in Washington, D.C.

Meh. Feh. Heh. Wha ...?New words enter the language all the time, but not all of them warrant a mention in the dictionary. "Meh," say the word mavens at the Collins English Dictionary, means "an expression of indifference or boredom." The word's inclusion in the dictionary, however, is anything but boring.

Millions of Americans will wake up disappointed on Wednesday morning. Barring an electoral tie vote, or some similarly freakish outcome, their candidate for president -- either Barack Obama or John McCain -- will have lost. And they'll face the prospect of four years under a president they opposed.

In California, voters are preparing to decide the fate of Proposition 8, a measure that would knock down the California Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling from earlier this year that homosexuals have a right to marriage. Observers are waiting to see if a similar backlash develops in Connecticut, where that state's supreme court handed down a similar decision this month.

Divisive, negative, and shameful campaign tactics are nothing new. But divisive, negative and shameful campaign tactics focused on race and sex is a vicious new twist this election year.

Is paying taxes patriotic?

America's financial crisis is a political crisis, too. In the course of just 10 days, the Federal Reserve propped up ailing mortgage giants Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac, refused to bail out the investment bank Lehman Brothers and balked at aiding mega-insurer AIG before coming through with a $85 billion loan in exchange for an 80 percent stake.

John McCain caught a lot of voters by surprise with his choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin, who is less than two years into her term as governor of the 49th state, is younger than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Just a few months ago, the prospect of a John McCain-Barack Obama election held the promise of providing relief from the barrage of negative advertising that assaults Americans every four years. Both men promised to abandon "old politics" and to treat each other with respect. No more Swift Boats. No more Willie Hortons.

Americans' eyes are turning to Denver for the Democratic National Convention, but the presidential forum at Southern California's Saddleback Community Church on Aug. 16 is still resonating.