Purple's pre-election column observed that the first effort of the President elected should be to work to restore civility and collegiality to the legislative process. It now falls to President Obama to lead in that effort.

The electoral map shows that his victory came principally in coastal states – From Maine down to Virginia, plus Florida in the east, and the entire west coast – Washington, Oregon and California. Add the lake states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio – Hiawatha's "shining big sea water" - and you surely have a victory "from sea to shining sea." But with a politically divided Congress, none of the nation's problems can be solved unilaterally by one party. We must pull together, or we will condemn our nation and our children to second class status – Greece, if you need an example.

An immediate problem is the continuing deficit, resulting in a huge national debt, now symbolized by the so-call "fiscal cliff" coming due on January 1st. The lame duck Congress will probably "kick the problem down the road" to the new Congress to be convened in January, because effective solutions to our financial problems will take time to design and negotiate , even in a collegial atmosphere.

Here's how Purple sees that process. Both parties will have to give. Entitlement costs must be cut, especially in health care. There are current military expenses that are not required; after all, we now spend as much on defense as the combined total of the next 15 nations. And there are plenty of earmarks and subsidies we can live without.

But Purple's arithmetic says that savings alone won't do it; we will have to raise taxes. Many Republicans, at the instigation of an unelected partisan, have pledged never to do so. Their leadership must persuade some Republican members to renege on that pledge, and honor their oath of office to put America first.

We have seemingly intractable problems with immigration reform, climate change, education, basic research, the corrupting influence of anonymous money in political campaigns. Those will only get worse if we lack the political will to design and implement politically painful remedies now. Then there are foreign policy matters such as Iran, Syria, and Israel-Palestine.

Fortunately, we in this area have a Congressional delegation that seems able and willing to help. Frank Wolf is a veteran Republican Congressman who has had the good sense to avoid any pledges re taxes. While Purple has disagreed with him on climate, he is a man who listens and can be influential in the Republican caucus which has to be reviewing its future policies. Senator Mark Warner, a shining star in the Democrat-controlled Senate, has already shown himself to be a consensus-seeker. And Senator-elect Tim Kaine told Purple a month ago that, if elected, his first act would be to seek out a Republican colleague with whom he could build a bridge across the political divide. It does not hurt that Tim is a former Chairman of the Democratic Party and a friend of the President.