The Columbia Journalism Review‘s Campaign Desk continues to embarrass itself. They wrote a long, indignant post early this morning insisting that the race is “too close to call” and castigating Fox, NBC, and MSNBC for doing so. This is nonsense. The proof, of course, is that nothing has changed since last night and Kerry is nonetheless conceding the race. Will the Campaign Desk now jump all over John Kerry for his reckless “rush to judgment”?

The other, bigger news is that Kerry is conceding. Good for him. John Kerry ran this whole race on borrowed time. He was left for dead just a few days before the Iowa caucuses and he shocked the world with an amazing comeback. All things considered, he ran a good and honorable campaign. Today he leaves the Democratic party beaten, but, I would argue, in better shape than it was last winter when he rescued it from Howard Dean.

He ran a good race, and is now passing the test of defeat. If his concession speech is as gracious as I think it will be, then I think he’ll deserve to be remembered fondly by America.

I hope the rest of America will applaud Sen. Kerry and thank him for his service. We tend to forget that even people who lose elections are doing good work for our republic. John Kerry deserves our gratitude and well-wishes.

Andrew Sullivan early this morning: “I’m a big believer in the deep wisdom of the American people. They voted in huge numbers, and they made a judgment. Not a huge and decisive victory by any means. But at least a victory that is unlikely to be challenged. The president and his aides deserve congratulations.”

Andrew Sullivan a few hours later: “Karl Rove understood the American psyche better than I did. By demonizing gay couples, the Republicans were able to bring in whole swathes of new anti-gay believers into their party. With new senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, two of the most anti-gay politicians in America, we can only brace ourselves for what is now coming.”

That was fast.

Sophisticates like Andrew Sullivan like to thumb their noses at Hugh Hewitt, but the fact is, he was right about this election and deserves credit for seeing the race clearly from a very early point. Fine work, Hugh.

Joe Tetreault is working on a story on Larry Rosin, a Democratic pollster who is part of the group that did yesterday’s exit polling. Too early to tell whether or not there’s anything here, but Tetreault has some interesting biographical information on Rosin.

“We will fight for every vote.”

The operative word here is “fight.” John Edwards didn’t say “count,” he said, “fight.”

I may be reading too much into this, but I suspect this means that Kerry intends not to wait for the provisional votes in Ohio to be counted, but to litigate and fight this election until the last man. I may be wrong.

But if that is the case, it will be scandalous. If John Kerry fights this election to the last man he will, like Al Gore, prove himself unfit for the office after the fact of the election.

Again, I hope this isn’t the case–I think too highly of Kerry to believe he’d really go through with a scorched-earth ballot-by-ballot fight.

Update, 2:45 a.m.: Bill Kristol disagrees with me and thinks the operative Edwards words are “wait one more night.” A totally plausible, and charitable, interpretation.

On Fox the very smart panel seems to be saying that Democrats aren’t assaulting the legitimacy of the process the way they were during Election Day 2000. But the panel is cooped up in a studio and certainly not wasting their time surfing the web! MichaelMoore.com has been publishing allegations of voter fraud all day, and has been planting the seeds of illegitimacy. Over at Daily Kos, many of the comments have been similarly themed. There is ample sentiment in the Democratic party that no Bush victory could be legitimate. I fear that John Kerry is about to give in to this mania.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the next vice president of the United States, John Edwards!”

When will he concede? It’s clear that Kerry has lost the election. The pressure on him not to concede–and to fight until his last legal recourse is exhausted–must be enormous. The Democratic party was breathlessly desperate to win this election. And in 2000, Al Gore set a precedent for attempting to settle the election through extra-electoral means.

But there are differences. Gore won the popular vote; Kerry did not. Gore was within fractions of a percentage point in several states; Kerry’s margin of defeat in the key states is reasonably decisive.

Would Kerry or the Democrats pay a price for holding out? Perhaps. Doing so two elections in a row might cement their image as the party of sore losers. The benefit: At this point, holding out is the only emotional satisfaction Kerry has to offer his most rabidly partisan supporters.

There is a bigger picture. The Democratic party has been sick for the last two years. It turned aside men like Dick Gephardt and Joe Lieberman in favor of radicals like Howard Dean. Anti-American extremists like Michael Moore and the International ANSWER crowd have infiltrated the party.

If Kerry can reach down deep, he could do one last service for the Democrats: Break the fever. If Kerry graciously and promptly concedes, reaches out to Bush, and reaffirms that our true enemies are the Islamist monsters committed to the destruction of Western civilization, he could help push the Democrats out of the fever swamp and back into the mainstream. He could position Democrats so that their political interests no longer run counter to American success in Iraq and the war on terror.

If Kerry can muster the fortitude to do this, he will go a long way towards helping Democrats become a competitive party again. Which would be good for all of America.

Fox has called Ohio, which means that the election is over. He will probably win the Electoral College outright. He’s up in the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes (that will narrow as California reports), and he should lead the popular vote when all is said and done.

It is difficult to see where Kerry goes from here. Before he can even think about contesting the election, he’ll need to run the table and pick up Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Tall order.

I’ve made no secret of my fondness for Kerry. He served our country well in Vietnam and served the Democratic party pretty well this winter when he rescued them from Howard Dean. Had he run a better campaign, he might well have won this race.

But his toughest task comes now. If he loses, it will be devastating. Yet he must reach down and find the courage to concede honorably, to reach out to Republicans, and to help continue orienting his party toward the American mainstream and away from the dark maw of Moore-ism. Al Gore failed this test, and his record of admirable service will forever be marred because of it.

I think John Kerry can do better. And I hope he does.