It’s been a long night. In addition to watching the election returns, our French Bull pup, Zelda, had an allergic reaction to something and we had to rush her to the local pet ER. She is fine and we are back home.

In the presidential election, former vice-president Joe Biden currently has 238 votes and Trump has 216, with 84 votes across six states still uncalled. But looking at the current lay of the land at this later hour, it is my strong contention that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States. It is simply going to take a day or two for the vote counting to get to a point where the various decision desks can project that victory. But the trends in his favor are quite strong.

I think his national popular vote margin will, in the end, exceed five million (possibly more); and he looks to be on track to win back Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. The fact that he has won Arizona (as called by the AP and by Fox News) tells me his chances in Georgia are pretty good. Having both of these in the blue column would be significant: Only one Democrat has won Arizona since 1948 (Clinton in 1996), and no Democrat has won Georgia since 1992 (also Clinton).

Unfortunately, this is not going to be the landslide blowout the country needed in order to completely repudiate Trump and his dangerous brand of authoritarianism. And he is likely to fight some of these results – because, you know, that’s what authoritarians do.

But over the next week or so, when the dust settles and Trump’s cry-baby antics go nowhere, Joe Biden will be our next president. It’s just going to take a little extra time to get to that call.

Hang tight.