Nancy Pelosi sure looked happy, tasting a possible victory that might make her the first "Madam Speaker" of the House.
Still, all the pundits talk is about the re-centering of the democratic party, not really in line with the views of the California progressist. Clinton-Gore once campaigned as born-again Christians, an effort obliterated by subsequent events. According to exit polls, some of the evangelical Christians, upset at the recent republican corruption scandals and distraught by the war in Iraq, might have found their way back to the "Reagan democratic" wing of the party.
Commentators, armed with that information, are already speculating that the new stars of this election might well be the socially conservative and hard-nosed vets. Jim Webb, the democratic challenger in Virginia, would be one of those symbols of change. The once Reagan cabinet member is still battling in a tight race with George Allen. The republican incumbent is laboring under two burdens: the increasingly unpopular war in Iraq, even in a traditionally militaristic State, and his own shortcomings, revealed by his racist remarks.