Like the frustrated customer at the office vending machine, the American voter keeps

punching the button marked "change." Unlike that unhappy consumer, the U.S. electorate isn't exactly sure what it expects — or wants — to see falling into the dish.

The risk is that, in different states and congressional districts, change will have such a

different meaning that the Congress that assembles next January will be even more riven by partisan and ideological divisions than the one we have now. It will become that much more important, then, for the grown-ups who run Congress and the White House to show real leadership, working together when they can, moving alone when they must, but never seeking to destroy the other party or faction just for the sake of it.

Yeah. Right.

The reading of the political tea leaves over the last couple of weeks indicates that the

elections that have been held so far, mostly primary contests that attracted only the

activists of each party, have driven the Republicans further to the right (Utah, Kentucky) while pulling Democrats more to the left (Pennsylvania, Arkansas).

The truth is likely to be more complex. And it is always risky to ignore the wisdom of

longtime House Speaker Tip O'Neill, who told us that all politics is local.

But when a longtime conservative Republican like Utah's Sen. Robert Bennett is ousted for not being conservative enough, and the GOP establishment candidate for a Senate seat in Kentucky loses to a "tea party"-backed libertarian, there is reason to think that at least some of the Republicans who will be elected in November will make Ronald Reagan look like a lefty.

It's a little more complicated on the Democratic side, as Will Rogers would have

understood.

While it is rational to assume that the ouster of five-term Sen. Arlen Specter by two-term Rep. Joe Sestak indicates that Pennsylvania Democrats wanted a move to the political left, the upset can be more simply explained by the idea that Democratic primary voters didn't buy Specter's party-switch as anything more than a cynical move of self-preservation. The fact that Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln was forced into a run-off with Lt. Gov. Bill Halter suggests more of a right-left — or in Lincoln's case, center-left — split.

President Obama, who practically copyrighted the idea of change two years ago, may have a more difficult time than ever governing a country that threatens to be more harshly divided between, on the one hand, people who are aghast that we didn't really nationalize health care and, on the other hand, people who are furious that we didn't let the banks and the automakers fail.

One way to avoid such a paralyzing split, just when crucial issues from immigration to the financial system to energy independence need solving, would be for the vast common-sense middle of the American body politic to show up en mass in November and demand real leadership.

Well, we can dream, can't we?