Couldn't sleep for hours, then finally did. Woke up at 9PST to see that Kerry had conceded. Went back to bed and slept fitfully for another couple of hours.

Instead of looking at the news, went straight to TPM and TDK. Meteor Blades is right. Josh Marshall is right.

(Meteor Blades, on Kos) Why were we in this fight in the first place? Because terrible leaders are doing terrible things to our country and calling this wonderful. Because radical reactionaries are trying to impose their imperialist schemes on whoever they wish and calling this just. Because amoral oligarchs are determined to enhance their slice of the economic pie and calling this the natural order. Because flag-wrapped ideologues want to chop up civil liberties and call this security. Because myopians are in charge of America’s future. ... After a decent interval of licking our wounds and pondering what might have been and where we went wrong, we need to spit out our despair and return – united - to battling those who have for the moment outmaneuvered us. Otherwise, we might just as well lie down in the street and let them flatten us with their schemes.

(Josh Marshall) Take time to feel the desolation and disappointment. But I remain confident that time is not on the side of the kind of values and politics that President Bush represents. It took conservatives two decades to build up the institutional muscle they have today. Though I was always nervous about the result, I thought we could win this election. But it was always naive to believe that that sort of institutional heft could be put together in 24 or 36 months.

Even with the horrific irregularities I noted early this morning, it looks like the numbers just don't bode well for a Kerry court challenge. We're talking about 3.8 million more popular votes for Bush, and while it's not big, it's not going to budge from just counting provisional ballots in Ohio. Even with the fraud, a little more than half of the American public chose Bush and Cheney. They chose lies and fear and poisoned whispers in the dark. And they robbed themselves of the kind of President that comes along once in a lifetime.

I was always going to keep fighting, because the world moves too slowly when it comes to moving forward. What I primarily mourn for is the presidency of John F. Kerry. There will be another Democratic candidate in 4 years, but I'm not sure if it will be Kerry.

Signing off with Kos' column for the Guardian: Divide and rule ... for now

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