Sen. Lisa Murkowski could have held out till the bitter end of the absentee vote count. That she didn't shows her good sense — and sense of what's best for the state.

After a cold-eyed look at the numbers Tuesday, Murkowski faced reality and conceded the Republican U.S. Senate primary to Joe Miller. She said she did so for the good of Alaska. That was the right thing to do. Miller has won, and there's no point dragging out an election process that the Miller camp began to question without cause, with suggestions of vote tampering and tainted results. Alaskans don't need another week of that, and Murkowski's concession cut it off.

Murkowski's speech included no call for unity, and that was hardly surprising given no love lost between the two camps.

But her concession was straightforward and stateswomanlike. She thanked her family, her campaign staff, volunteers and the state of Alaska. She gave a ringing defense of her losing campaign:

"It was honest. It was upright. It was energetic. It was what a campaign in Alaska should be."

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