2. The recently resolved Sen. Ted Stevens vs. Mark Begich race in Alaska which, resolved in Begich's favor, makes the 60-vote majority even more tantilizingly reachable and worthy of further support of time and money.

3. The commitment to keep the activist, volunteerist, contributonal strategies running to help President-Elect Obama work on and push through his promises and policies once in office, including programs akin to Kennedy's Peace Corps or the later Volunteers in Servie to America (VISTA) programs. And, with the current economic meltdown, the possibility of Obama instituting FDR-type WPA programs to get Americans back to work on infrastructural problems. Obama and his people knew that it was no mean feat to get the young people again enthusiastically involved in national politics and causes and that the lamp of activism must be kept lit.

4. Those who actively worked on the Obama campaign were queried, filled out questionnaires about their "intentions" for the future and their ideas about how the campaign worked, what they would do differently and the extent to which they want to continue working for Obama to advance progressive "change" programs he touted during the campaign. In other words, Obama is offering a never-ending campaign, if not a New Deal than at least a Change Deal.

5. This was an historical election for all the obvious and well-analyzed reasons having to do with race, gender, war, economics and some social, wedge issues concerning gays and marriage. But it was an historical election pre-eminently because there is something felt historical about the election. There was and is the belief that Obama can indeed change the direction of this country, recoup its "special" image in the world, a nation, a people, a set of leaders one can look toward rather than turn away from. This has been a long time in coming and many people don't want to let that "feeling" go so quickly just because the election is completed. And Obama has asked them to stay in touch and hold him to his promises.

6. The power of Obama has been enhanced by the retiring reticence, lame-duckness of George Bush and company. On a surprise yet most welcome note, the Bush administration has provided Obama with a transitional power, visibility and pulpitude practically unprecedented for a President-Elect in American politics.

With this bully pulpit and perception of real rather than potential power, foreign dignitaries know the sitting president has psychologically and emotionally left the building. Most substantive foreign and domestic attention and speculation has turned to Obama. In many ways, Obama is President-Elect in name only, as George Bush is now President in name only.

7. The TV pundits and the op ed pages of the major national newspapers are filled with commentary about who will be pulling levers of power in an Obama D.C. Who will Obama appoint to cabinet positions, to transition team positions, and to various administratively sensitive positions such as Press Secretary, White House Counsel and Chief of Staff? Coverage of these Administration change-of-power goings-on fill up the 24 hour cable news shows and keep Obama in the public eye while his cool, confidant demeanor and words are contributing to the emerging legend of Barack Obama in his own time.

8. Polls are still chugging along, only this time about dimensions of The Obama Effect: How confident do you feel about his solving the current and expanding economic crisis? The military problems? Unemployment? National Security? Cabinet appointments? Obama's ability to walk on water?So, if you yearn for polls, if you yearn for excitement and speculation and punditry, like the media offered for two years; if you yearned for another episode in the never-ending Clinton Travelling "enigma in a conundrum show," one that's keeping the election spirit alive, along with, of course, the miasmic rats nest, Wall Street-Detroit, it's all here. And hey, MSNBC still calls itself "the station for politics. That must mean something, right?

Yes, events intervene and momentarily drive American politics off the front page. The marathon crisis and tragedy that is Mumbai has consumed media news attention. And certainly Sarah Palin still shows the power to pull the camera away from both presidents when she opens her mouth to save a turkey but somehow misses the point and reveals her astounding insensitivity to the suffering of all things animal. But she still has a constituency; she is still is someone to watch. And comedians adore her.

The political beat goes on. The Obama train, hated, hopeful, or adored, is still racing across the multi-media landscape, taking up all the political oxygen in cyberspace. Even the columns and photos of Bush-in-Decline add to the Obama, post-election after-show. So, to paraphrase the legendary Yogi Berra-Dan Cook phrase as it might apply to this election season: it ain't over and the fat lady hasn't sung. Election fatigue and withdrawal? Poll fatigue and withdrawal? Nowhere that I can see.

Final note: For the true political addicts, the ones who jump from one issue to another, one candidate to another, one juice machine to another, they're another story. By this writing, they will have already found another issue to shoot up, another cause in which to immerse themselves, to find the meaning and the tang that "civilian" life simply can't deliver. They're like the unnamed war photographers who scour the world for action. Idealistic and noble causes are not their life blood. For them, it's the fight that counts, not who is fighting.  It's the process, not the outcome. For them and for political junkies, Obama is already yesterday. For the rest of us, Obama is today and tomorrow.