Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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To My Left-of-Center Readers: You may not believe me, but I've been there. In 1992, I really thought George H. W. Bush was going to pull it out and win by a small margin. In 1996, I was delusional enough to believe Bob Dole was going to make the electoral college close.

And I'm a New York Jets fan. So I'm used to pain.

There are many of you who have written me in the past six months, disagreeing strongly on some points, conceding some others. And for all the anger and nastiness and incivility we hear about out there, we seemed to get along okay. Considering the Democrats I deal with on a regular basis, I get the feeling that this party's leaders aren't reflecting the greatness of its members. Demand better. Any party that treats Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich as serious presidential candidates needs to demand better of itself.

I think liberalism is going to have to go through some changes in the next few years — drop some sacred cows, rethink some old ideas, figure out how to apply its principles in a post-9/11 world. But I think that, eventually, liberalism will do it. If you look across the Atlantic, you can see Tony Blair: a man whose political career has been dedicated to his nation's left-of-center party, a prime minister who leads his nation in the fight against bin Laden and Zarqawi with all the tenacity of our president. If a Labour prime minister can do it, a Democrat can do it.

You guys are going to get up off the mat, dust yourselves off, and someday, you're going to win big races again. The road back is long, hard, and rocky, but you'll do it. And it will be worth it.

To My Right-of-Center Readers: Don't you feel...just terrific?

Mrs. Kerry Spot — whose political views are not symmetrical with Mr. Kerry Spot's — has been relishing her consolation prizes: a box of truffles and an eerily calm husband.

"Are you all right?"

"Fine, why?"

"You just look so...relaxed. You're agreeable, pleasant, not distracted or stressed or snapping at people. I just haven't seen you this at ease in, like, six months."

Anybody else feel like a ten-ton weight has been lifted from his shoulders? Anybody else feel like every muscle had been tensed and clenched for about two months, and a steadily increasing vice-like pressure had been squeezing him, day by day, as the election approached? Just me? Boy, since that last debate, I just wanted the race to end. Just vote and get it over with.

And we've endured a lot during this campaign. Attack ads that will rip out your heart and scald your eyes. Large groups of hairy, under-employed, bandana-clad reprobates marching around carrying signs equating the president with Hitler. A new political documentary at the "independent" theater up the street every weekend. Every single B-list comedian, aging rocker, and hitless actor (*cough*Affleck*cough*) believing that he was the greatest political thinker since John Locke. I'm sorry, Linda Ronstadt: You're a wonderful singer, but if I ever need your assessment of the Kyoto treaty, I'll call and ask.

The two parties have to change their primary schedule for 2008. This campaign has been going full throttle since last fall, and our nation wasn't built for 16-month campaigns. You end up with a stunning scoop a day that ends up being completely forgotten.

For example, do you even remember that people once wondered about the impact of the Kitty Kelley book? Or Washington's being shook to its foundation by revelations from Paul O'Neill? Remember when Joe Wilson was somebody to take seriously? Or Richard Clarke? Remember when Richard Clarke was thought to be someone who could swing this election?

Would you believe Wes Clark was once considered a serious contender for his party's nomination? Howard Dean? John Edwards's obsession with "regular people"? The presidential campaign of Bob Graham? Really, he was in it. Remember when the Internet was going to power Howard Dean to the nomination? Remember the obsession with John McCain running as an independent? Does any part of the Democratic Convention ring a bell beyond that hammy salute?

Why was everybody on edge from the moment Kerry got the nomination and that first, silly 37-percent-Democrat/24-percent Republican Los Angeles Times poll?

Because this election mattered. I think Al Gore called 2000 the most important election of our lifetimes — and in retrospect, not having him in charge on 9/11 was an oh-so-crucial decision. But this one...with this one, the importance was right smack in front of our faces.

The only thing at stake in this election was the future of Western Civilization. In seemingly every conceivable way, John Kerry was the wrong man to lead this nation in the war we're in right now. His 1971 testimony, his defense-cutting record, his obsession with a "global test," his disturbing pride in the endorsements from unnamed foreign leaders, his naïve belief that the leaders of France and Germany are concerned with American security, his contradictory statements, suggesting he didn't grasp the stakes in Iraq...

... and that damnable Monday Morning Quarterbacking that he dared call a vision! All he ever had to say about the war on terror was that Bush had messed up, and that he would fix it with a plan (details to come at a later date). Serious mainstream media would have demanded those details, and laughed him off the stage when he refused to divulge them.

Bill Maher had it right when he called Kerry a Frankenstein's monster of the worst Democratic candidates in recent memory: the I-know-better-than-you arrogance of Al Gore; the toxic inability to relate to human beings of Michael Dukakis; the dippy never-lost-faith-in-liberalism outlook of Walter Mondale. And, one might add, the decisiveness of Bill Clinton.

(When the networks' anti-Bush propaganda — er, I mean the "exit polls" — broke, I readied myself for a Bush defeat. I thoroughly believed Kerry was the wrong guy for this era, and that his ill-considered policies meant Americans would die over the next four years. But if the Americans wanted to try the Clinton approach again, maybe they would need to witness its failure, again, before they grasped this issue's importance. That's their call, and their right.)

But Frankenstein lost. Our guy won. And it was over by Wednesday morning.

In a short while, we're going to have to get back to the real world. That bearded punk quaking in a Pakistan cave who decided to play pundit last Friday — we're gonna dismantle him the way we've dismantled his organization. Yeah, we noticed no attacks in the U.S. between 9/11/01 and 11/03/04 — that didn't happen by accident. It happened because we're winning, and we're not going to let up until the word "al Qaeda" is as distant and meaningless as "Barbary pirates."

But before we modest folks — sitting at our laptops and our computers, just doing what we can in our corner of the world, and enjoying a particular political website — return to the vital world outside politics, let us relish this moment.

Victories like this one — decisive, complete, powerful, and echoing around the globe — don't come along all that often.

And there's plenty of credit to go around. Take a bow. You, me, and about 58,882,918 or so of our closest friends helped set the course of this nation for the next four years.