Here's what I'm thinking.

The first, main, obvious point: this transcends political partisanship. It will play to Obama's greatest stength: his ability to articulate the values and history and destiny that unite us. It's patriotism in the best sense.

Point 2: The voices of Palin, Trump, Huckabee, and the other candidate clowns on the Republican side will be (to a substantial degree) neutered; they have no way to respond to this with anything but praise. Obama became a great commander in chief tonight. There may be hard surprises coming, but the American people will be supportive.

Point 3: A younger generation has come of age over the last decade in the shadow of 9/11. They already voted for Obama in '08. He is now imprinted on this generation unmistakably. He is THEIR president, OUR president. They/we will be a little older, a little wiser, a little more realistic, and a little more experienced, and they will come out to vote (after taking a bit of a nap in 2010!)

Point 4: This will provide a national morale boost, and will underline the importance of public service, the public good, the value of effective government. There will be positive economic results as the national funk lifts. And it will be awfully hard for the reactionary neo-libertarians to trash talk governemnt, when the government tonight did what it does best.

Point 5: This legitimizes Obama for the squishy moderates in the middle... the ones who who proven gullible in the face of the birther nonsense, the fear-mongering of the right over health care, the crisis claims of the Ryan budget warriors, etc. Obama will swing the moderates back to the Dem side.

Point 6: Obama has the bully pulpit back in full. From it he will be able to claim that he brought the nation back from economic collapse, started to reform health care in a way that works, drew down the wars, helped catalyze progressive revolutions in the Middle East, and CAPTURED THE LEADER OF AL QUAEDA -- all in the face of the worst kind of irrational disrepect and outright hatred. He will project dignity and strength, competence and vision. Unlike Trump (among other jokes).

I think he just won re-election. You think so?