In 2004, most of us woke up to disappointment.
Another four years of Bush.
A 30 seat Republican edge in the House of Representatives.
A 10 seat Republican edge in the Senate.
What a difference four years makes.
I could write a really long diary here, talking at length about the changes within the Democratic Party over the last four years since Howard Dean became chair. I could reiterate a lot of things that have already been said.
But the numbers say enough.
We just elected Barack Obama president of the United States. Not only is he the first African-American president, he received more votes than any elected official in the history of our nation - somewhere on the order of 64 million votes.
We have at least a 16 seat lead in the Senate - and possibly one or two more.
We have at least a 78 seat lead in the House of Representatives - and possibly three or four more.
We turned Virginia and Ohio and Florida and New Mexico blue. We may also have turned North Carolina, Missouri, and Indiana blue.
We have a party that has functioned on the grassroots level like nothing in modern history. We turned conventional wisdom on its ear.
And the seeds of all of this were planted in 2003, with "People Powered Howard."
Governor, you may not have had the chance to live out your Presidential dreams, but you changed America in perhaps an even more profound way. You laid the groundwork for a true progressive revolution and opened the doors to a candidate - a movement - that made people believe in their country again. And that's something very few Americans ever can claim to have done.
Thank you, Governor Dean. Thank you from the bottom of our heart. For what you've done in transforming the party in the last four years, you have our eternal gratitude.