Sometimes in the deep doo doo of an election year, we can forget how amazing it is that in the end, we will put the nonsense behind us and watch a stunningly peaceful change over of power from one president to another on inauguration day. And we will, because we are Americans.

The other thing we like to do is laugh.

One night after the final debate (one which I thought was the most contentious), the candidates participated in a campaign season traditional event. The Alfred E Smith Charity Dinner in New York. The only year this did not happen in recent history was in 2004 when Catholics had some issues with John Kerry and stubbornly would not invite him which meant they also did not invite Bush and essentially canceled all the fun. Which was a shame. Because I think we need moments like this. When humor is used to find some common ground between opponents. When we laugh at ourselves. When we remember that we all really want what is best for his great country of ours, we just approach it from different angles. I love this tradition of the two combatants roasting each other and laughing together. I was just lucky enough to get home from a meeting and then dinner to sit down and catch the full broadcast of the two routines on Rachel Maddow’s show last night and I laughed and laughed. And it felt good.