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Finally, we can all breath a collective sigh of relief knowing that this is the final day before the culmination of the election season tomorrow.

Over the course of the last six months, I found myself so bombarded with political rhetoric from nearly every angle that at times it sapped my will to live.

In this potentially historic election (not simply for what’s at stake but for the impending disaster in vote tabulation that is to come) nothing has been beyond political saturation

Thanks to our new epithet, “swing state,” this has been especially true in Wisconsin. The Eau Claire-La Crosse media market saw more political advertising than major markets like New York City, Los Angeles and Houston. In fact, out of the 210 media markets in the nation, of which we are the 127th largest, we ranked 16th in the nation for the number of presidential spots aired.

Even this page, the Editorial section, which I put together twice a week, became so politics-heavy that I longed for a change.

I was flooded with political editorial columns that people demanded be printed. At times all I wanted was a temporary return to the more trivial, light-hearted columns that this section has seen in years past, but people kept sending them in. UW-Eau Claire students, faculty and staff, local citizens and even concerned citizens from as far away as New York and California, who took a vested interest in our “swing state” status, wanted to relay their political opinions to the crucial 10,000 voters of our university.

Of course, there is no denying that this has been a good thing. Students utilized the newspaper as public forum. They volunteered to register voters. Others held rallies or passed out flyers and stickers for their candidates of choice. And many simply spoke of politics in passing conversation.

I like to think that all of this combined will play a part in the substantially larger role we as young people are expected to play in choosing the president tomorrow.

Yet, while civic responsibility came to light as an issue worth pushing, we Americans did something we’ve often been known to do – we overindulged.

It became antagonistically trite for Hollywood celebrities to promote political involvement among the masses.

Pretentious jet-setters everywhere, including Ashton Kutcher, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Christina Aguliera, Leonardo Di Caprio, Drew Barrymore and Jake Gyllenhaal scoured the country with their obnoxious campaign to “get out the vote.”

At Eau Claire, this was no more evident than with Jake Gyllenhaal’s arrogant attempt to persuade a room full of swooning women to vote for Sen. John Kerry at Hilltop Lounge on Wednesday.

Yes, I agree that Kerry is the better candidate and I’ve heard that “Donnie Darko” was a great movie, but I doubt that he or the rest of his celebrity cohorts know any more than the rest of us about the Iraq War. After all, this man was the star of “Bubble Boy.”

Sadly, all of this is a sure sign that politics became a fad this election season, and will go as fast as it came – no different than America’s infatuation with Clay Aiken.

In retrospect, however, I can look back and say the political attention in Eau Claire has been a welcomed change of pace.

Over the course of the last year, the Chippewa Valley has seen two visits from vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards, two visits from Vice President Dick Cheney, two visits from President George W. Bush (the first time a sitting president has visited Eau Claire in more than seven decades), one visit from presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry, and one visit from presidential candidate Ralph Nader. The area has also seen visits from Edwards’ daughter Cate, Edwards’ wife Elizabeth Kerry’s stepson Andre Heinz, Kerry’s wife Teresa Heinz and a well-attended debate between Sen. Russ Feingold and challenger Tim Michels.

Let’s just say the Boston Red Sox’s historic drought may not seem so historic the next time the Chippewa Valley sees this much political action.

So I hope you took it all in and enjoyed it. The brink of the election is upon us, and it’s safe to say that after tomorrow the Chippewa Valley will be much quieter.