There comes a point when you know you've won. Maybe you restrain from celebrating -- like when the clock ticks down toward all zeroes -- but you feel pretty good.

In football, it's when you get that key first down while holding a lead late in the fourth quarter and the other team is out of timeouts.

In baseball, it's when you add insurance runs before turning the game over to a lights-out reliever -- like Brad Lidge -- to close it out.

In basketball, it's when the other team is fouling you and you're padding your late lead at the foul line.

Hockey? How about that 'ol empty-net goal to take a two-goal lead with less than a minute left.

Elections can be trickier, but I felt pretty secure about a Democratic win come Tuesday when I watched John McCain look around in vain for his celebrity guest -- Joe The Plumber.

Not only is this guy not named Joe and not even a licensed plumber, but he is the epitome of the proverbial island of last resort.

Joe -- he of the back taxes owed -- eventually turned up and said something about supporting John McCain because he "a real American."

The statement just about says all that needs to be said about the mindset about to have it's collective clock cleaned on Tuesday.

The right has hijacked patriotism and God for too long. On Tuesday, we're taking it back.

Meanwhile, on the same day Joe Schmo made a further mockery of the McCain campaign, Barack Obama's featured guest was former President Bill Clinton. The next day, Nobel Prize winner Al Gore was on the stump for our next president.

It's not over -- officially.

But it's over.

We are going to be a better country for it!