Which is obviously good, since, as one blogger recently noted, the Republican Party is "populated and led by miserable, repellent sociopaths who have managed, in eight miserable years, to wreck this country and effectively obliterate another."  On the other hand, let's not get too cheery:  the Democratic party is still far to the right of every social democratic party in the civilized world, and so in that very important respect, the reactionary turn in American political life that began with Reagan remains firmly with us.  The real question is whether Obama will really reverse that trend:  certainly the political demographics give him the opportunity, if he can really lead.