Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is being praised for setting his machine in motion to turn out the vote that helped ensure victory for Elizabeth Warren, who garnered nearly three-fourths of the ballots in the city in the battle with Sen. Scott Brown. All hail Menino. But while the Menino Machine ran pretty smoothly during Tuesday’s election, the machine operator was nowhere to be found, and despite pronouncements that the mayor is fully engaged, questions linger about his health and the effect on his future and that of his city.

The whispers in City Hall have gotten so loud that the mayor’s people felt pressure to arrange a call-in with the Globe’s Brian McGrory to dispel any notion that Menino did not have his hand on the power levers. Menino and his aides wanted to affirm that all decision-making ran through the temporary command center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  But, if anything, the story raised more questions about the mayor’s health and well-being and it will give rise to the inevitable speculation over whether he’s up for a record sixth run next year.

“Menino began the approximately 15-minute interview in a vigorous tone, but as time went on, he spoke in a somewhat more halting voice,” McGrory wrote. If a 15-minute interview takes a toll, you have to wonder about the rigor required to run a city every day.

Menino, who turns 70 just after Christmas, has been in the hospital since returning early from a 46th wedding anniversary trip with his wife to Italy two weeks ago. Doctors have said it’s a viral infection and during his stay he also developed a compression fracture in his back from lying in his bed. Add in his 12 days on the cruise in the motherland, and Menino has been away from the office for nearly a month while a storm raged through the region as well as the frenzy going on from type of election that normally energizes the Urban Mechanic.

While no one doubts the diagnosis, the questions once again arise over who needs two weeks of hospital treatments for a viral infection. The answer usually is someone who is very sick. He admits he’s been poked and probed several times a day while doctors look to see if there’s anything underlying the illness.

Just before he left on his trip to Italy, Menino began wearing sneakers with his suits because they were more comfortable on his aching feet. Menino’s spokeswoman Dot Joyce says the mayor’s feet had been swelling and the soft sneakers were a better alternative than stiff leather dress shoes. Joyce says the foot-swelling is unrelated to his current illness, which raises even more questions about his overall health.

Menino has been hospitalized about a dozen times during his two decades as mayor, but his aides rarely mention a hospital stay unless word begins to spread. The hospitalizations have been for a variety of reasons, including a rare form of cancer and Crohn’s disease.

Through it all, Menino’s aides have reassured the public that the city is running fine and Menino himself has been hewing to that line. “No idea,” Menino said when McGrory asked when he will be discharged. “I’m just sitting here with my legs up. I’m unshaven, five days. But there are people worse off than I am. I have good staff who work hard every day.”

The intent may be to spread the word all is well in the city but the effect may be the opposite. Has age and illness caught up with the mayor where he is no longer the vital cog? And, if that’s the case, could this be a central theme for opponents if he decides to run again. We’ll soon find out.

                                                                                    –JACK SULLIVAN

BEACON HILL

With everyone expecting Sen. John Kerry to get the nod for Secretary of State in a second Obama administration, speculation is flying on the game of musical chairs that might ensue in Massachusetts. Gov. Deval Patrick insisted he would serve out his term but left open the possibility of working with Obama in two years, the Lowell Sun reports. The San Jose Mercury News, via Wonk Wire, predicts that Gov. Deval Patrick is in the running for attorney general. The Sun pegged UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan as an ideal candidate to replace Kerry, but Meehan told the paper his plate is full. US Sen. Scott Brown says he is unsure of his future plans, WBUR reports.

Republicans lost ground at the State House, State House News reports (via CommonWealth). The Telegram & Gazette says central Massachusetts became a lighter shade of red this election, although Brown polled well there except in Worcester and Harvard. Brown also did well on the South Shore but Democrats picked up a House seat in Plymouth County that had never been held by their party — ever.

The director of the state pharmacy board was fired yesterday following allegations that he ignored complaints earlier this year that New England Compounding Center was sending out bulk orders of drugs in violation of state law.

Everett officials are in talks with Hard Rock International about bringing a casino to a site along the Mystic River. After being broomed out of Holyoke, state gaming commission chairman Steve Crosby encouraged the firm to examine sites around Boston — a market many have already conceded to Suffolk Downs and Caesars.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Among the results of Tuesday’s vote was the recall of two members of the Bridgewater Town Council and the election of two new members to the embattled board.

Delays and equipment shortages at polling places in Lawrence prompted grumbling that the city was poorly prepared for the heavy turnout, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

Rehoboth officials blame the town’s difficulty counting votes on a spider web inside a voting machine.

ELECTION 2012

House Speaker John Boehner talks of playing nice with the reelected president as the fiscal cliff looms — but it’s still early. Plenty of time to arrive at a stalemate and let the recriminations fly! Time’s Joe Klein says President Obama has a mandate — a mandate for moderation.

The Globe ponders whether Sen.-elect Elizabeth Warren will play nice or look to spill a little blood in the genteel confines of the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body.

The state’s Democratic Party, which was caught sleeping in the 2010 special election that sent Scott Brown to the Senate, vowed not to make the same mistake twice, and it didn’t, ramping up an impressive field operation that buried Brown and carried lots of other Dems to victory. CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow runs the numbers and concludes Warren’s turnout machine swept away Brown by pulling in the votes of women, Democrats, and new voters, particularly in urban areas. Writing for CommonWealth, former Gov. Jane Swift offered some advice to Republicans in 2009 which still seems fitting today.

Republican Richard Tisei conceded defeat in an email to reporters but didn’t personally congratulate US Rep. John Tierney on his victory, the Eagle-Tribune reports. Tierney tells the Salem News the lack of a call is “a testament to his character.” Tisei’s campaign aides said they received reports of some verbal intimidation of voters in Lynn, but the city clerk there said there was no truth to the allegations, the Item reports. The Herald editorial page calls Tierney’s reelection a “disgrace” to state Democrats.

The National Review says the “terrible defeat” for Republicans at all levels was a matter of conservatives failing to make their case that conservative policies are better for governing than liberalism and socialism. The Weekly Standard concurs that the fault lay not in their stars but in their sell. In the American Spectator, Boston-based writer Aaron Goldstein bemoans the fact we’re not in 1980 any more when the Gipper carried the conservative gonfalon and America was in a better place.

Au contraire, says The New Republic’s Noam Scheiber, who argues that a more conservative message would have only widened Obama’s margin in key swing states. The Romney campaign stuffed Paul Ryan in a lockbox for a reason, he says: His hard-right budget agenda was proving radioactive when it came to seniors. All of which raises the question of why Ryan, rather than, say, the governor of New Jersey or an Ohio senator, was tapped in the first place. Ryan ponders his next move. The Wall Street Journal traces Mitt Romney’s downfall to the post-primary period when, exhausted by fighting off the likes of Rick Santorum, Herman Cain, and Newt Gingrich, Romney lacked the resources to rebut a wave of negative attacks. A flood of outside money weakened President Obama during this period, but it did nothing to sell voters on his opponent. The New York Times provides an inside look at the Obama campaign’s post-debate-debacle comeback.

Nicole Gelinas offers a thoughtful take for the right-leaning City Journal on why Mitt Romney lost and why the Republican Party is in such trouble, which probably means few party poohbahs will pay it much attention. Maine Sen. Susan Collins argues that the GOP has consistently squandered chances to widen its power base by nominating unelectable candidates; predictably, the Tea Party and far-right social conservatives behind these selections beg to differ. The New York Times and the Herald’s Margery Eagan spotlight Republicans’ difficulties with women, while the Wall Street Journal and the Atlantic grapple with the limits of politics aimed exclusively at older voters, social conservatives and white men.

Keller@Large ponders what’s next for Scott Brown, Mitt Romney, and Gov. Deval Patrick and concludes for all three, the future’s so bright, they gotta wear shades.

Courtesy of Political Wire., here is Mitt Romney’s transition site-screen shots, complete with information about an inauguration that won’t happen.

Joe Kennedy III tells the Herald he will take a page from his uncle Ted’s playbook and actually try befriending Washington Republicans.

Clinton v. Bush in 2016 via Political Wire/Politico.

Young people, hear them roar.

Maryland voters support the DREAM Act, while Oklahoma bans affirmative action in education and other public settings, Governing reports. Maryland also backed same-sex marriage, the Washington Post reports.

CHARITY

The Chronicle of Philanthropy scrubs President Obama’s stances on issues affecting nonprofits and foundations to gauge the next four years and finds a mixed bag between support for charitable endeavors while looking to limit tax deductions by the wealthy.

CASINO

Voters in Rhode Island approved a measure to allow table games at slot parlors, a move that could present stiff competition to planned casinos in Massachusetts, especially the proposed Mashpee Wampanoag casino in Taunton.

HEALTH CARE

Here come the medical marijuana businesses.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Green energy analysts say President Obama’s reelection will bolster the industry in New Bedford, which is positioning itself to become a hub of wind energy jobs and manufacturing through the expected extension of expiring tax credits supported by the administration.

The Northeast has had enough: First a hurricane, now a snowstorm.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

The Fall River Board of Health revoked the food and milk license of a local mini-mart for selling illegal synthetic marijuana as well as other banned paraphernalia.

MEDAI

Karl Rove’s on-air rebuttal of Fox’s Ohio call raises questions about his role, the New York Times reports.