For what the electorate did on Nov. 2 was essentially (or maybe just merely) turn down John Kerry, a candidate who until very late in the Democratic primaries was almost no one's choice as the nominee, the party's last option because it could rally around no one else. What a pathetic vessel in which to have placed liberalism's hopes! A senator for two decades who had stood for nothing, really nothing.

(The Jewish vote for George Bush rose nationally from 18% to at least 25%. But, in Florida's critical Broward and Palm Beach Counties and Ohio's defining Cuyahoga County, the president's Jewish total was much higher. And exit polls of Jewish voters are notoriously unreliable: Some Jews are still embarrassed to admit voting GOP. "S'iz a shande far di goyim," as my cousin would say. It's a disgrace before the gentiles.)