The Last Page

I am thinking slowly about the disaster of November 2. No message leaps out of the available statistics, though I have read many instant analyses. I am unsure what went wrong, despite the many suggestions that have been printed and posted. I am not engaged by the debates about whether the Democrats have to move right or left or stand their ground (if they can find it). I am sure that it is too early to say how they should move, even if we are thinking only of political tactics. And I am not interested, not yet, in who will be their/our candidate for president in 2008—even though I know (and regret) that the candidate and his or her entourage will be more important than the party and its platform.