This doesn't feel nearly as bad to me as 88 did. That was the second straight landslide and it seemed impossible that the Democrats would ever win anything.
Clinton was just four years away.
To a large degree this election was won by an appeal to bigotry. It offends me immensely that Ohio was lost due to a gay marriage ammendment being on the ballot, but the upside to that is that it can't be done again. They can't have it on the ballot again in 2008.
Bush barely won this time and he only got in in 2000 due to poorly designed ballots and a strong 3rd party candidate. In 2008 it will be the Republicans who will be overconfident. It will be them who will have an extremely vicious fight between the libertarian and religious wings of their party.
Yes, today looks bleak, but that's just today. Spend the next four years fighting back to the best of our abilities. This won't last forever.