Failure Is an Option ... but Losing without Learning Isn't

Beginning of article

WASHINGTON -- Sometime late tonight, many Americans will feel like losers. Some will have worked months, maybe years, to elect someone who is staring at defeat. Some will have invested a heaping helping of hope into John McCain or Barack Obama, only to face four years under the opponent. There will be tears, denial, anger.

As this epic season barrels to a resolution, there is much at stake besides ideology and leadership. Namely: winning and losing. Success will send one side into shared ecstasy. Failure will deaden the other side with lonely grief. It will hurt.

"I would argue there's no starker dichotomy in American culture than in the idea of success and …