OK, I've had it with this.... A Drive by post.

OK, There's the Foley thing[s]
There's the Hastert coverup.
There's the North Korea Nuke Test,
There's the continuing murder in Iraq [and Darfur, and elsewhere]

Is there no Good news? I want happy thoughts for everyone!

Oh. You say that we must first elect all Democrats first and THEN we get happy thoughts?

I don't think so.

<more details after the break>

OK. Best of all possible worlds... in true Candide fashion:
Democrats take a commanding lead in House and squeak by in the Senate to a majority.

NOW WHAT?

Yeah, I saw the "First hundred hours" schtick from Pelosi.... There's still going to be republican crud in the pipeline to get cleaned out before Democratic legislation can replace it. Some of it will be just tossed out or rewritten but it will still take time.

The fiscal irresponsibilities of the last 6 years will have to be fixed. Dems are the ones who will either succeed or fail at doing that. They will be the ones who have to try to get the country's economy turned around. They will also be the ones branded with all the pain that will ensue when the fixes are in place. Do you seriously think that they can balance the budget without stepping on toes or goring sacred cows? That baggage will be on their carts for the '08 election cycle. They've got 2 freaking years to undo the 6 years of mismanagement and do it without hurting their base supporters.
--BIG job.

The world will still hate us or at least mistrust us at best. They will still be used to the "our way or the highway" diplomacy of the last 6 years. There's a "trust account" that you have to build up by working with your allies before you can "spend" some of the trust getting your allies to go along with your point of view against their own immediate interests. The account was in huge surplus on September 12th, 2001. It's all gone now ... B'Bye!
--Big job #2

Rediscovering our role in the world and also restructuring the US itself.
National Health plan, Fixing Katrina for real, Fixing immigration, Ensuring the Security of our nation and maintaining the security of our personal freedoms.... Oh and then there's Net Neutrality - it'll be back too.
--Big job #3, #4, #5, etc

Quite the shopping list.

All have to be jumpstarted and swinging into hight gear with visible results within 2 years. Actually, within 1 year to allow for the campaign season.

Pretty scary stuff on the agenda.... Where can we find the happy thoughts in this?

Only one that mattters [to me anyway] :

WE'LL be the ones driving the bus instead of the drunk and antisocial b-stards who are behind the wheel now.

That could be enough. At least the Dems will TRY to fix things instead of just concentrating on enriching their cronies and contributors [but we'll watch 'em anyway as good Kossacks do].

The drive by portion of this diary is over. I'm off to bed where sweet dreams await me. This diary will scroll down to obscurity and off the list by the time I can look again. I promise to read all comments. I really don't know how kos does it. Chicago - hmmm. Sounds great.