I know the happy Kerry photos are giving people lots of reasons to smile, and so are the polls. The gang and I will be debateblogging tomorrow night, and it’s going to be a tense few weeks no matter what, and people keep saying, “Don’t get cocky.”

I think we’ve had so few victories in recent years, and they’ve had so many, that it’s hard to enjoy the good poll numbers, the fiery speech, the moment of hope because we’re afraid it will all be snatched away. Anybody with an Internet connection seems to know a little Greek mythology and is succeeding in scaring the hell out of himself if he’s a Kerry voter right now.

But we have to take joy in what we’re doing, now and right up to and beyond election day. Driving home tonight, behind a huge pickup with bald eagle mudflaps and about six Kerry stickers, it struck me how impossible this would have seemed two years ago. A sitting president is on the ropes, brought low by his lies and his kingly assumptions and his contempt for pragmatism. We did that, all of us, and nobody and nothing can take it away.

So use this thread to post me your stories of hope. Talk to me about the things you’ve seen and heard that make you realize how much good we’ve all done. Because the gods aren’t coming down to confiscate this, not yet. Tonight, at least, we can gather round the campfire and feed the flames.

A.