How can you not get excited about this presidential election? Even conservatives fretting over a choice have to be heartened by the huge Super Tuesday turnouts.
It was a super success for democracy, suggesting Americans may have finally awakened from their none-of-the-above stupor and remembered what it means to have the right to vote.
Last week's primaries and caucuses sprouted multitudes of new voters. And not just among the Democrats, who are about to make history by choosing either their first African American or woman nominee for president.
Eleven states saw their highest turnout percentages in decades for a Republican primary or caucus. Similar numbers were achieved in 12 Democratic races.
Helped by moving its primary to February, instead of holding it in June, New Jersey boosted turnout to 35 percent, compared with about 10 percent four years ago.
The fear when Super Tuesday was being crafted was that front-loading the calendar with more than 20 elections on a single winter day would end the need for further primary campaigning because the two nominees would be decided at once. Didn't happen.
Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were almost tied for delegates as they awaited results from yesterday's Louisiana primary and Nebraska caucus. Republican John McCain was waiting to see if voting in Kansas, Louisiana and Washington might push Mike Huckabee to join Mitt Romney on the sidelines.
The Republicans' winner-take-all approach to allocating delegates had always provided the greater likelihood that their nomination might be wrapped up long before their final primaries in May and June. It looks as if even Pennsylvania's April 22 GOP primary will be too late to matter.
On the other hand, the Democratic Party's proportional allocation of delegates could stretch that race all the way to the convention in August. That means neither Obama nor Clinton will be able to take a day off from trying to convince voters that he or she would make the best nominee.
Good! The longer it takes, the more time voters will have to listen to Obama and Clinton, who are planning future debates. There will be more time to pore over the ideas on the candidates' Web sites, more time to discuss those ideas with friends and neighbors.
It's not enough for voters to show up at the polls in large numbers. It's good to see people excited about the historic nature of this election, but they must not get so caught up in the hoopla that they disregard their greatest obligation - to choose the best person for the job.
Every voter must decide who really can be the best president for this nation at this specific time of war and economic uncertainty.
But don't lose the excitement. We wish that it could be bottled, then broken out for every election.
For too long, Americans have been blase about their right to vote, lukewarm about the democracy they should cherish. But it makes a difference when you have attractive candidates and a nation seeking to recover from a presidency that by most measures must be considered a failure.