He’ll find a way to feel validated and vindicated. He always does.

And there were disappointments for Democrats, many of which should cause concern and prompt careful re-examination of their strategy going forward. High-profile progressives, including Andrew Gillum in Florida and Beto O’Rourke in Texas, didn’t fulfill the dreams that so many Democrats had for them. There may well be a lesson for 2020 in that, and I’m not confident that the party will learn it.

I also worry that House Democrats, flush with the newfound ability to torment a president who has earned it, will go too far, and become the foils against which he thunders profitably as he reaches for a second term. There are ways to contain and expose him shy of an all-out subpoena-palooza. The answer to a freak-show presidency isn’t a carnival that leaves Americans confused about where the most blinding lights and obnoxious noise are coming from.

But let’s save all of that for other columns. Let’s use this one to rejoice. Trump needed a comeuppance, and the decisive swing of the House into the Democratic column was precisely that. You know what else was? The profiles of the Democrats who made that swing happen.

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Many of the candidates for the House who turned red seats blue were women. A record number of them ran for Congress this year, and it seemed likely early Wednesday morning, even before all the counting of ballots was done, that the next Congress would also contain a record number of them: more than the 107 currently there. So a president who has acted and spoken with such vulgar disregard for women will deal with more female lawmakers than any of his predecessors did. That’s a measure of sweet justice.