As he delivered his victory speech, Ehud Olmert tried to put a brave face on what must have been a disappointing result. For three months the opinion polls had predicted his Kadima (Forward) party would sweep the Israeli election, winning up to 44 seats. The real poll, on Tuesday, was far less kind - 28 seats in the 120-seat parliament.
Kadima's mediocre showing will not prevent Mr Olmert from becoming prime minister. But it will make it much more difficult for him to carry out his plan for a major withdrawal in the West Bank.
The right-wing bloc, including the former ruling Likud party which crashed from 38 seats to 11, will not be able to prevent Mr Olmert from forming a government. But, at the same time, he did not win a ringing endorsement for his unilateral withdrawal plan, with those parties supporting his blueprint falling short of an outright majority.
With Kadima having failed to emerge as the clearly dominant political force, there will be much coalition horsetrading over the next month. When the smoke clears, Mr Olmert will likely head a coalition in which his major partner is the dovish Labor Party which won 20 seats. At his side, he will also likely have the Pensioners party, which never made it into parliament before, but which won an astonishing seven seats this time round, thanks in part to support from disenchanted young Israelis who wanted to register a protest vote.
Two religious parties - United Torah Judaism and Shas - will likely make up the coalition ranks, giving Mr Olmert a 74-seat majority. But both these parties opposed Ariel Sharon's pull-out from the Gaza Strip last year, and Shas wasted no time yesterday declaring that it will not back a pull-out in the West Bank.
That declaration will immediately test Mr Olmert's pre-election assertion that any party that opposes his plan for a withdrawal is not welcome in his coalition. The arithmetic, he knows, dictates that only he can put together a governing coalition, but as he does so he will be wondering whether he will have enough raised hands when his pull-out plan is ultimately presented.
In a bold pre-election move, Mr Olmert effectively transformed the election into a referendum on a West Bank withdrawal. But the election results are not categorical, and while they will not have buoyed the Jewish settlers living in the West Bank, many will have drawn some solace, believing they may still prevent a withdrawal.
Kadima leaders have said they will wait a year to see if negotiations with the Palestinians can be renewed before making any unilateral moves in the West Bank. But the talk of a 12-month waiting period is seen by many as an internal political ploy, aimed at luring parties into coalition.
What's more, Mr Olmert is not a great believer in the chances of renewed negotiation, especially with the ascendance of Hamas.
In fact, he is an enthusiastic supporter of unilateralism, having publicly outlined such an exit strategy for Israel from the occupied territories even before Mr Sharon did so.
Rather than wait a year and get mired in the sticky molasses of coalition politics, Mr Olmert might ponder moving swiftly to implement his West Bank withdrawal plan while he still enjoys the initial momentum of his election victory.