I haven't felt this rotten about an election since the 1994 debacle against the Thugs. To me, this election was cut and dried. Bushco had thoroughly %()$ed up the war against radical Islam and launched a bloody side adventure in Iraq. They did not deserve the trust of the nation and they have only increased the threat posed by Osama bin Laden.
I'm depressed that we've done so poorly in the Senate and made no inroads in the House. We had a great bunch of candidates, a lot of enthusiasm, and solid GOTV efforts. All of it added up to nothing.
But do you know what the hardest part of today will be for me? Explaining it all to my kids - a first grader and a pre-K. They picked up on my enthusiasm for Kerry. They were singing little John Kerry songs they made up during the last week of the campaign. They were thrilled to come vote with my wife and I, standing in line with us for an hour. And tonight I have to explain to them that George Bush won and John Kerry lost. And I will get that wonderful innocent disappointment of "but why?" For in their world, your favorite team always wins and your favorite player always makes the winning play.
I'm lucky in one sense - in Virginia we have our statewide races next year. We can get back in the game and work for a new country right away. Then we can look forward to 2006 when Mark Warner will kick George Allen out of the Senate. But I've still got to deal with the sting of today and explain to two little kids: "Why?"