On this day of relief and celebration, I'd like to take a moment to remember all those in the progressive movement who didn't make it across the finish line yesterday.

All the candidates and campaigns who didn't quite make it, or in some cases didn't even come close despite pouring their blood and treasure into the fight. Being from Texas, I'm painfully aware that not all Democrats won big in 2008.

For those of us who've been involved in progressive politics for awhile it seemed like the interminable Bush years would never end. The bitter losses of 2000, 2002 and 2004 building up layers of scars and heartbreak. But we fought through it and damn I'm proud of my country and my party today.

But there were millions of Americans who didn't live to see the repudiation of the Bush era, despite working so hard to achieve it.

Let's take a moment to remember our fallen comrades and especially to all those lost on 9/11, in Afghanistan and Iraq, to Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ike and every other disaster of the Bush/Cheney era.

And let's remember those whose loving marriages were suddenly declared illegal in California by Prop 8 and every other state where bigotry has been written into the law. That fight isn't over, we will not forget. We shall overcome.

I'd especially like to remember three people:

Madelyn Dunham, the grandmother of the President-Elect who didn't live to see it, but who did get to vote for him. We all owe her a big debt of gratitude.

Fred Baron, a legendary trial lawyer who won many victories for the little guy in the court room and poured millions of his own dollars into the Texas Democratic Party in the last few years, pretty much single-handedly keeping it alive. He passed away on October 30th.

And Dr. Andy Miracle, a friend of mine who wasn't any kind of big political player but whose passion to end our national nightmare inspired me greatly. Andy had a cerebral hemorrhage just before the 2004 election and never got to vote that year. I think of Andy every election day as I vote.

I'd like to share one of my favorite poems "To those who've fail'd" by Walt Whitman:

To those who've fail'd, in aspiration vast,
To unnam'd soldiers fallen in front on the lead,
To calm, devoted engineers--to over-ardent travelers--to pilots on
their ships,
To many a lofty song and picture without recognition--I'd rear
laurel-cover'd monument,
High, high above the rest--To all cut off before their time,
Possess'd by some strange spirit of fire,
Quench'd by an early death.

And for those of us who only died political deaths this year, you'll be back.

To end on a happy note of political resurrection, my good friend Richard Morrison, whose long-shot 2004 campaign against Tom DeLay was one of the first netroots campaigns waged on the national level got his first electoral victory yesterday. Richard, an environmental trial lawyer who's been representing those that the big developers have paved over, flooded out, and ripped off for more than a decade now has been elected to the County Commission of Fort Bend County , Texas. I have a feeling that there will be a lot less irresponsible development going on during his term. Congratulations, Richard.

Take a moment to make your dedications to fallen comrades and second place candidates in the comments.

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I have to confess, among the the first things to pop into my head upon learning of the death of Madelyn Dunham was a. had she already voted (I assumed by absentee) and b. would it count.

Via Ben Smith, today I'm glad to see the answer to both is Yes:

Ms. Dunham's absentee mail ballot was received and reviewed under the Hawaii standards for processing absentee mail ballots... She was alive at that time. Her ballot will be opened tomorrow, and it will be counted in the same way that all absentee voters would be treated under our law.

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Yes, they went there.  And thankfully Keith Olbermann was able to call them out.  I heard about this first on Thom Hartmann this morning and was outraged.  I've been waiting for a clip and I found it at the Huffington Post and it does not give me the option to embed in the post.  I did however find what Keith Olbermann had to say about this, after the cut.

But I just can't figure out what's worse about this awful line of attack on Obama.  I mean, first this "spokesperson" (not for McCain) was trying to deflect the question regarding Palin's outrageous spending spree at the cost of the RNC.  And then to question why a Presidential candidate can't take a commercial jetliner to Hawaii is just absurd, or maybe a "smaller" plane.

"Forget about the energy that is wasted, what about the hundreds of thousands of dollars to take a private trip when this guy should be humping his bags on a commercial plane or taking a smaller plane. Taking a 767 of campaign money from people who could least afford it is more of an outrage in my opinion."

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Isn't it strange. Here we are, two weeks away from a historic General Election, and because of the sad news about the parlous state of health of Barack Obama's grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, our thoughts turn to matters beyond the reach of campaigns and the ballot box.

Or perhaps it's not so strange - it's salutary. For a moment, there is a hiatus to think about deeper things.

I've been touched by how many diaries (like Beltway Dem's here) and comments this moment has triggered. And though wary of sentimentality, these personal accounts of grandmothers have got me thinking about why Obama's character and story appeals to so many people across the world.

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