Meanwhile, today the President did come out from behind the curtain and at a White House Press Conference he was relaxed, friendly, confident, and, hardest of all, humble. He repeatedly insisted that it was the candidates, their families, and their staffs who deserved the credit, even those who lost, and that his contribution had been minimal. If Democrats and the media haven't figured him out yet, they could do worse than watch today's performance.

The essential questions the Democrats face may in fact be answered by the ultimate rise of a hardy figure who started out as a left-wing ideologue and wound up campaigning for 80/20 issues like child-safety seats in cars. A proponent of liberalism that evades getting tagged as leftism, this major-state senator is a tough partisan who hates the other side but has the discipline not to show it, or not often. Hillary Clinton just may be where the party is going.

Finally, never, ever, ever underestimate George W. Bush. It took me two years of being wrong about Bush before I finally got sick of it. The rest of the pundit class had better catch on. He is a leader of the first order. This historic night belongs to him.

Which Founding Father Are You?

1. Attorney General Jim Doyle beats incumbent Gov. Scott McCallum for Wisconsin governor (+1 for the Dems) by 4 points. McCallum is surging at the end but his initial deer-in-headlights look when he replaced political legend Tommy Thompson will leave many voters wondering if he has what it takes to bring the state out of tough budget problems.
   
2. Norm Coleman edges out Walter Mondale for Sen. Paul Wellstone's Senate seat. The Wellstone death rally really turned off potential Mondale voters, and yesterday's debate showed Coleman was a thoughtful person who represented Minnesota's future.
   
3. The U.S. Senate will end up being the same 50-49-1. The GOP has too many seats to defend. Talent will win (thanks to Patrick Ruffini) but Allard or Hutchinson will lose.
   

The bottom line: everything on the videotape was true: the party, the Doyle volunteers, the money, the kringles, and the suggestion that the mentally ill cast absentee ballots. It wasn't Kmiec's job to make judgments about the ethics of the sleazy, cynical attempt to manipulate the mentally ill. That's up to the voters.

The sharpest exchange of the debate came over the issue of abortion. When asked about confirming the president's judicial nominees, Coleman said he did not believe in litmus tests, while Mondale said, "I believe in choice [on abortion]...I believe it is so fundamental, it is in the Constitution, that we should confirm judges on that basis."

Mondale accused Coleman of "trying to slide around some very fundamental questions about the future of this country and its most sacred values of justice." Shaking his finger at Coleman, he said, "What you're doing is sticking with the right wing and pretending to change the tone. Norm, we know you, we've seen you, we've seen you shift around."

A short time later, when Coleman asked Mondale, "Could you find common ground on the issue of partial birth abortion? Do you believe parents should be involved?" Mondale shot back that Coleman was "an arbitrary right-to-lifer." In what would become the most dramatic moment of the debate, Coleman answered that he and his wife had had two children who died young. "I have a deep and profound respect for the value of life," Coleman said. "It's not arbitrary. Please do not describe it as arbitrary."

The response knocked Mondale back on his feet. Even in an emotional moment, Coleman had kept his cool and respectful tone, leaving the former vice president without an effective response.

Anyway, Hart's way too young to be a credible Democratic candidate these days.