An apt metaphor. We broke through, and there's a good chance we won't go back. I've said it before on a couple of other threads: particularly in the South, there's long been a "vicious circle" thing going on. Conservatives would avoid voting Republican at state and local levels because they would be aligning themselves with the powerless minority; and the Republicans remained the minority for too long because they weren't getting enough of the conservative vote.
It has literally taken a generation for top-of-the-ballot GOP success in the South to percolate down to the state legislative, judicial, council of state, and county commission levels. But we've broken through! In the eleven states of the old Confederacy, the GOP now controls 10 of the 22 state legislative chambers. Dixie becomes a true GOP majority region -- not just at the Presidential level, but all the way down the ballot -- in 2004, unless I miss my guess.
And one more thing: among Republicans in the South, RINOs are scarce as hen's teeth. :-)
There is no likelihood that Bush will be involved in a scandal.
It looks like Bush is invincible today, although there's always a chance of the unexpected occuring, particularly in foreign affairs.
If Bush wins re-election by a large margin, the ramifications are huge. Optimism is certainly justified.