The stronger-than-expected role of moral values signals that the nation's values agenda is likely to be dominated by "social morality" concerns for abortion, gay marriage and stem-cell research--issues vital to Bush's base.

The election also marks a defeat for progressive groups who tried to cast "social justice" concerns of poverty, war and the environment as moral issues.

Either way, Jim Wallis, a self-described progressive evangelical, said neither blue states nor red states should try to claim a corner o­n the values market.

"In the past 10 to 15 years, there's been a lot of interest in wisdom," said developmental psychologist Carolyn Aldwin of Oregon State University. Aldwin helped lead a series of studies known as the Wisdom Project, based at the University of California, Davis.