I like this point from James Q. Wilson, which I think brings the much hailed cultural portents of the election into perspective:
What is most impressive about this election has been the extraordinary success both parties have had in registering new voters and getting them to the polls. Suppose the Democrats had done this better than the GOP. The result might well have been a Bush loss in Florida and Ohio, and thus the loss of the election. Our press would now be running columns about the liberal shift in public opinion, the defeat of fundamentalists, and the importance of antiwar sentiments. But in fact the Democrats did not do a better job than the Republicans. Perhaps the columnists should now just say that Karl Rove out-organized his opponents.
Bush’s reelection was a triumph of organization, not a triumph of evangelical ideology.
Will Wilkinson 