In my column of a couple of weeks ago, I wondered which way the political and ethnic tribes of Massachusetts would vote in the gubernatorial election between Devel Patrick, a Democrat and a black man, and Kerry Healey, the Republican Lieutenant Governor, and a woman. The polls have apparently revealed the result.

The tribes have done what they do best, which is get a really good hate on — for Healey. They’re going to show that persnickety Beacon Hill WASP bee-eye-itch,and hand her a 25-point loss. This place! There’s a joke about Venezuela, where somebody says to God that he’s given Venezuelans everything, resources, mountains, forests, fertile land, the sea, and God says, yes, but I made it up by giving the country Venezuelans. It’s kind of like that in Massachusetts, one of the loveliest states in the union, populated some of the grouchiest, nastiest, most narrow-minded people in the country. Who will cut off their noses to spite their faces over and over again.