And what did we learn yesterday?

Well, for starters, we learned that:

• "We're not Bush" is not the strongest Democratic campaign theme imaginable, but it works a lot better than "We're not Bush either" did for the Republicans.
  


• Voter suppression, by itself, really isn't enough to hang your hopes of winning a nationalized midterm election on.


• Voters can often recognize when "14 years of experience" is really "1 year of experience, repeated 14 times."


• Given time, people will learn that if they're going to be afraid, they might as well be afraid of the right things.


• Oregon's vote-by-mail ballot system isn't perfect (for one thing, not nearly enough voters actually put the things in the mail), but a lot of other places are starting to think it's smarter than the system they're using.


• A lot of people--including Oregonians--have decided that having Republicans run their statehouses has stopped being such a good idea, too.


• Howard Dean and KOS, and others, were right about the 50-state strategy: you can't win where you don't show up.


• Karl Rove has never been a "genius," although anyone's IQ would appear to go up 20 points standing next to Bush; Rove's just a smart guy with no conscience, and that only gets you so far in this world.


• Calling "50% + 1" a "mandate," doesn't make it one.


• Contrary to the warnings and threats of President "Uniter, Not A Divider," Democrats can get elected in pretty large numbers and yet the country is still there this morning.


• In Oregon and nationwide, grassroots support matters, small donors make a big difference, and bloggers can occasionally force issues onto the wider public's radar screen.


• Cokie Roberts is a lot more amusing to listen to when she's unhappy.