Election Day 2006, Next Tuesday, Polls Open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., Celebrations and Vote Tallies to Follow.

This one’s got more drama than a Superbowl or American Idol final. When’s the last time you saw a candidate’s mere association with the most powerful man in the country, the president, a subject of paid political television ridicule and attacks by his opponent? I never have and I’ve been following politics since before I’ve told a lot of people I was even born. But in this election, it’s going on all over the country. There’s really a mood akin to a popular national upheaval, fueled by a deep contempt for how the administration has handled Iraq, and as never before by that mighty populist tool, the Internet. Don’t sleepwalk through this one only to have your kids someday read how big it was in their history books.