Stiff upper lip

What Markos said.

I have news for you guys -- this won't be the last disappointment we'll ever suffer. Heck, politics is about perpetually fighting battles, and no one -- no one -- has an undefeated record.

It's easy to take defeats too hard. None of us invaded Iraq and we have done what we can, in our limited power as regular citizens, to make our voices heard. That doesn't minimize the appalling features of the Iraq occupation, but sometimes you don't get what you want. That's life and that's politics.

Having been someone who has taken his marbles and gone home in the past, I can tell you from personal experience nobody cares, or if they do care a little they get over it quickly and forget all about you. The difference now is that the netroots exists and we can hang together, or hang the other way.