[Xantar]

I believe Edwards gave up his Senate seat, so he is not in fact going to lose his next election bid because....he already lost it.

I don't think that America has in fact turned out to be surprisingly conservative. I think that on the one hand the Democrats didn't find a message other than "get Bush out" and pound it in well enough. I know what Kerry stood for, but not many did.

The other thing is Americans have apparently decided that foreign policy and homeland security are the most important issues today. More important, even, than the economy. Even if you don't believe that Bush is responsible for the weak state of the economy, the fact is that by itself is usually enough to throw a President out. The first President Bush had nothing to do with the economy being in recession either (in fact, it was booming for most of his term). But thanks to the economy and "read my lips," he got ousted.

This time, I know that many Americans voted for Bush thinking, "Well, I don't like what his education policy. His environmental policy sucks. He caters too much to those crazy fundamentalist people. But he'll keep us safe."

In most ways that are important, I actually think Kerry ran about the best campaign he could have. But he was fighting American demographics the entire way, and he just didn't win.