Just like the post-debate spin, the post-election spin is critical.  I'm afraid we are doing Ralph Reed's job for him, by lamenting how the country is filled with cartoonish stereotypes of religous fundamentalist evangelicals.  Don't believe it.

Even with a Perfect Storm of events:
9/11
Incumbency
War in Iraq
Gay Marriage

The most "liberal member of the senate" from Mass., who OPPOSES the death penatly, DOMA, and Gulf War I, very, very nearly knocked off a sitting wartime president!  I'm proud of our party, our candidate, and our effort.  Remove any one of those above events, and we win.  Next time, the republican will start with NONE of those advantages.

Politics is a continuous process, not just one event every 2 or 4 years.  We need to get back to work.  If our elected politicians believe this claptrap about how right-wing the country has suddenly become, then they will move rightward as well.  Forget "coming together as Americans to support the new president".  We need to undermine this Mandate idea, to start right NOW to whittle away support for Bush and his party.