None of us will soon forget that terrible Tuesday in November 2004 when the exit polling said one thing and Ohio said another, when values was the thing, Karl Rove was a genius, and a permanent Republican majority loomed large. What a difference two years makes.

Republicans have lost both houses of Congress and their sense of unity. Libertarians are at war with social conservatives. Neocons are on the run. Senate Republicans have set an informal timetable for the war (September). And their leading Presidential candidate is a pro-choice former mayor of New York City, a candidate and position that George Will has called conservative.

The White House has infuriated its base on immigration and global warming. And not only can’t they pass any items on their agenda, it’s not clear they even have one. George Bush is so personally unpopular at home that he had to go to Albania to find the love.

It’s been a long struggle for the progressive movement, and it’s not over. But it is perhaps worth taking a moment, and only just a moment before resuming battle, to celebrate how far the tide has turned.