Slate’s Daniel Gross endorses the mess cleanup thesis:

The only solace for sullen Democrats is that now Republicans might have to clean up their own fiscal mess.

And Larry Beinhart says much the same thing in the Baltimore Sun:

Sen. John Kerry’s loss of this election is a disaster for the country, but it could be the salvation of the Democratic Party.

If Mr. Kerry had won, he would have had to deal with the mess that President Bush has created. The war in Iraq. The coming implosion of the economy.

Mr. Kerry would have had to face a Republican Senate and a Republican House and a Republican judiciary. All eager to oppose, undermine and, in particular, blame him. Just as they did in the campaign. Don’t think that a spirit of bipartisanship would have arisen. Just remember how they went after the Clintons.