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Does a citizen of any country, not just the good ole U.S. of A., have an obligation to support its national teams? For goodness sake, it's just a game, not Horatius at the Bridge standing between us and national defeat.

The fact is, too, that because the U.S. is so powerful, our team is usually the favorite, and, hey, it's natural to root for the underdog. Somehow I don't think it makes you a traitor if, say, you take a liking to somebody like itsy-bitsy Lithuania when it battles our juggernaut of NBA all-stars in international basketball competition. After all it's not the Nationalism Broadcasting Company that brings us the Olympics.

Click on the audio link above to hear Deford's take on this issue.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe won the hotly contested Virginia governor's race, defeating Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who was supported by the Tea Party.

The race turned out to be far closer than polls heading into Election Day indicated. That suggested that voter turnout may have failed to reach the levels Democrats had hoped to achieve and that the Affordable Care Act may have hurt the Democratic effort.

McAuliffe, a 56-year old entrepreneur and former Democratic National Committee chair, prevailed in a contest that was particularly negative. His win was the first time a Virginia gubernatorial candidate of the same party holding the White House won since 1977.

The Democratic victory reinforced the state's shift from red to purple. President Obama won the state twice, the first Democrat to win the state since 1964.

Democrats framed the race as a referendum on Cuccinelli, 45, who they labeled an extremist based on his record as the state's attorney general.

After the government shutdown, Democrats hastened to tie Cuccinelli to that as well. Virginia has a large population of federal government workers and contractors who were adversely affected by the shutdown.

Democrats also hit Cuccinelli hard for opposing abortions in virtually all cases which allowed Democrats to attack the Republican as anti-women.

That line of attack proved particularly effective in contributing to a yawning and consistent gender gap favoring McAuliffe that topped 20 percentage points.

Republicans, meanwhile attempted to paint McAuliffe as an unethical businessman, attacks which never appeared to take hold even though McAuliffe wasn't exactly a popular Virginia figure.

They also tried to link the Democrat to the troubled Affordable Care Act, with Cuccinelli, the state's attorney general, arguing that voting for him would provide a firewall against the health-care law in Virginia.

There was polling evidence that Virginia voters were voting not so much for McAuliffe as against Cuccinelli.

Cuccinelli did get some help from some national Republicans like senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio as well as Gov. Bobby Jindal who visited Virginia to campaign for him.

But McAuliffe got far bigger names to campaign with him. In the campaign's final stretch, President Obama and Vice President Biden made appearances at rallies with him. McAuliffe who is close to the Clintons also drew both former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, to rallies.

McAuliffe's victory represented a personal vindication. Four years ago he was trounced in the Democratic primary for governor by Democrat Creigh Deeds who went on to lose badly to Republican Bob McDonnell.

Technology giant Apple is buying a large manufacturing space in Arizona, where high-tech glass for its devices will be produced. The move is being hailed in Arizona, where the economy remains slowed by the U.S. housing market crisis.

From Phoenix, Mark Moran of member station KJZZ reports for our Newscast unit:

"Between the people needed to get an abandoned building ready to makes Apple's sapphire glass and those who will actually make it, the tech giant's foray into Arizona will create about 2,000 jobs in an area still struggling to recover from the housing bust that left many more than that out of work.

"Apple bought an abandoned solar power company building in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, and expects its sapphire operation to start generating significant revenue for the company next year.

"The sapphire glass will actually be made by GT Advanced Technologies, a supplier for Apple, and used in the covers for the camera lenses in Apple's phones and the fingerprint-reading devices in some of its other products."

The pundits always claim that even in an "off year" like this there are messages to be received from the results on Election Day.

So what are a couple of the likely messages we'll be hearing about Tuesday night after the results of today's voting are in?

The big headline, NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving said on Morning Edition, will likely be that the Republican Party's "great moderate hope" won big in New Jersey. Gov. Chris Christie, a potential 2016 contender for the GOP presidential nomination, is expected to easily win reelection. Ron said Christie might even pull in 60 percent or more of the votes.

Headline No. 2 looks to be from Virginia, where polls show Democrat Terry McAuliffe leading Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in the governor's race. Cuccinelli is a favorite of social conservatives and Tea Party supporters.

The combination of a Christie win in New Jersey and a Cuccinelli loss in Virgina are likely to bring out more analyses that say the Tea Party is losing some of its momentum and the "moderate" wing of the GOP is making a comeback.

As for the other races to watch Tuesday, they include:

— Mayoral contests in New York, Boston, Detroit and Minneapolis.

— Ballot initiatives about hydraulic fracking (Colorado), genetically modified foods (Washington State), marijuana possession (Maine) and whether the Astrodome should be saved or razed (Houston).

Reminder: our friends at It's All Politics are following the news.