I've developed a Pavlovian expection for elections. For most of my adult voting life, I've been conditioned to expect to lose. Even before being old enough to vote, I hadn't wanted blue M&Ms.

Within my circle of friends, politics (city, state, are federal) are often the topic of discussion. Most of us are young professional Democrats or techie libertarians for whom the constant blog skimming and poll tracking is customary.

Outside that circle, my level of news consumption and tendency to steer the conversation political are seen as peculiar. When asked why I occupy my time with these diversions, this is my response: "Politics is my baseball, and the Democrats, sadly, are my Cubs." Swap the polls for the box scores and the news with the Sporting News.

Today, I'm like a Cubs fan after a Series win, or, perhaps more apporopriate to my Wisconsin heritage, a Packer fan the morning after Super Bowl XXXI. While it was only so comforting to say "I told you so" during Bush, it's much more heartening to win.

Celebrate, but minimize the gloating. Next season isn't far away. Now, the priority is to show why both the last and next wins were and are deserved.