It was almost two years ago that Barrack Obama was elected President of the United States.
My oh my, what a difference two years can make.
That isn't to say that I have buyer's remorse, because I certainly don't. First, a pragmatic approach means if it wasn't Obama, it was McCain. I used to like McCain a lot, was happy to see him start reeling off states during the primaries as he marched towards the nomination. I even, and this may come as a shock, spent a few weeks telling people he would probably get my vote. I thought he should have beaten Bush in 2000, and my belief that we would have been much better off had that happened instilled in me this notion of a second chance, and an opportunity to finally get it right. But then, in the span of a few months, McCain became what he always hated. He became a ride-with-the-wind-of-today politician. He disappointed me in so many ways, and I voted for Obama without any reservations.
Second, I think the passage of time will make clear to us what isn't now. But more on that later.

Do you remember what it felt like, those October weeks of 2008, and that first week in November? Do you remember what it felt like that evening of November 4th, 2008?

I do. I remember that line that he kept repeating, the line that filled me, and I'd like to think, us, with so much hope.
"We are the ones, we've been waiting for."
It was such a powerful feeling, to believe that we were in history as it was being made, that we were the ones making it.
My friends and I often talk about the towering figures of American history, the men and women who stuck their one rudder in the water, and shifted the direction of this enormous ship we call the United States. The Kennedy's, the King's, the Lincoln's.
For those of us who risk having such conversations, who try to think big thoughts, I cannot tell you what it meant to me to entertain the idea that we were like those people. Not that we were leaders like them, but that we were a part of a movement and a time that would chose a leader who reminded us of those we spoke about in coffee shops and on balcony's over late night drinks.
What I'm trying to say is that all we ever did was talk about the people that did something remarkable, about people that didn't just experience change, but helped cause it. We just never thought that we would end up being like them.

And yet, here we are two years later, in the midst of trying times. I won't get into why you shouldn't despair, at least not into detail. Simply put, the economic damage Obama battles today was, mostly, done before he was sworn in, and it was done almost entirely before his stimulus plan to effect.
More than 70% of job losses occurred before the stimulus was signed into law.
During the Clinton administration, more than 20 million jobs were created.
During the Bush administration, a little more than 2 million jobs were created.
I won't get into any more policy than that, because I think it tells the story about as well as any other stats I could quote.

Despite the fact every respectable economist of any political color told us that the stimulus would help, but that the problems that caused the recession were so systemic that it would take years, YEARS, before we got back to where we were before, so many Americans expected Obama to bring the magic of his campaign and charm away all of our problems.
And maybe some of that is his fault. He set the bar so high, in hindsight, failure by some degree was the only likely outcome.
Here's the harsh truth, decisions were made by a few, greedy, selfish, immoral men and now the rest of us have to live with the aftermath.
And I don't want to hear any crap about bank bailouts. Those were Bush's decision, and virtually all of Congress supported, Obama and McCain included.
For too many years, the American economy lived like the guy in the upscale neighborhood who takes a third mortgage so he can buy the new Mercedes and put in that big pool just so he can keep up appearances, the whole time knowing he can't make the payments.
Our economy lived beyond its means. A day of reckoning was bound to come, and it came when Bear Sterns went from bellwether to bankrupt in two months.

As I said before, though it may be unclear now, the effects of what Obama has done in the past two years will define the United States for the foreseeable future.
Make no mistake, in the past two years his administration has passed legislation on scale that has not been seen in, I would argue, 80 years. Not since the days of the New Deal has more significant, ambitious, and far reaching bills crossed the President's desk. From the stimulus package, to health care reform, to Wall Street reform, to bills for homeowners, small businesses, and the unemployed, you have been in a comma if you have not recognized the immense changes that have been implemented. We are living in a momentous time, and we have an ambitious president. Any arguments otherwise are flawed and self-serving.

So, we're brought back to this question: "Are we the ones we've been waiting for?"
I guess it depends on a choice of three possibilities ...
Maybe we weren't the ones we were waiting for. Maybe those people are still out there somewhere, in the years of tomorrow or the places in our heart we're afraid to go.
Or, maybe we were those people, but we've somehow change now, for a reason now or a reason before. Maybe we looked in the mirror and saw greatness, but didn't look long enough to prepare ourselves for the day when that mirror was shattered. Maybe we didn't take the time to memorize what we looked like, so that when dangerous people like Beck, Palin, Olbermann and Maddow tried to tell us we don't look like we did before, even though somewhere inside us, we remember looking different.
Or maybe, just maybe, we actually were the ones we were looking for. Maybe we really were those people felt that excitement, felt that rush of possibility, and knew we had the juice to back it up, to wake up the next morning the same person we were when we closed our eyes the night before. But then, like the champion boxer who thinks he is invincible, we took a shot to the teeth and when we hit the cold canvas face first it shocked the hell out of us because we'd never laid there. And we're still laying on that canvas now, trying to take stock of what it means, attempting to make sense of it all.

I think we're the third person. We were walking on air, and then someone came up and punched us in the mouth. What we did before is pointless, if we don't figure out a way to spit out some blood, pick ourselves up and say, "I hope that's not all you've got, because if it is, you're in trouble."

I'm not sure of who said it, but I've heard Michael J. Fox say it often.
Tough times come as surely as the sun will rise tomorrow, so instead of wishing for a lighter load, wish for broader shoulders.

State of Georgia Football

A FALL FROM GRACE

Glory, Glory to Ole Georgia.

It is the verse of the timeless fight song, and the immortal words of Larry Munson that boom forth at the start of every game, enlivening the crowd and echoing in the cement and scene of Sanford Stadium like so many of the great plays, fabulous teams and legendary players that called the grass between the hedges their stage.

But now, though the setting hasn't changed, the show has. Georgia is 2-7 over it's last 9 SEC games, and 9-11 over its last 20 games overall. Why? Was Munson more than just a broadcaster? Is Russ bad luck, a spotted imposter annoying the football gods until a true Uga guards the sidelines once again?

It may sound facetious, but Georgia fans are getting desperate and desperate times call forth all manner of remedies.

What is wrong with Georgia? Was the Sugar Bowl really that long ago?

If the blackout game against Alabama was Richt's Waterloo, the 49-10 loss to Florida four weeks later was his exile. Georgia, the preseason #1, lost by a combined 90-40 in those two games. And believe me, the scores could have been much worse. For me, the '08 season was a greater failure than the '09 season in a myriad of ways. Granted, Georgia was not the first slightly overrated preseason #1 team in history, and they certainly won't be the last. But that team was essentially the same as the year before, and whatever losses suffered to the NFL or by graduation were supposed to more than made up for by the continued maturation of the younger, better players.
When you think about the talent on the '08 team that went 9-3, and the major drop off of talent on the '09 team that went 7-5, the difference of two games isn't so great, and I would argue that the '09 team did more with what it had than the '08 team did.

What is wrong with the team this year? If you'll humor me, I think it's more simple than not.
In short: the schemes and the personnel don't match up.

Grantham is installing a 3-4 defense, and he simply doesn't have the type of players he needs to make that work. We don't have a big nose tackle, and we don't have enough linebackers that are big enough to take on a lineman, but quick enough to drop into coverage. Grantham deserves more time. I'll give it to him.

The offense is a disaster. The linemen are undersized but athletic, and are much better in pass protection than run blocking. It follows that we'd be much more successful if we ran a quick strike, spread'em out offense that didn't require the line to move people five yards down the field, but instead just hold their blocks long enough for Murray to throw the ball.
Unfortunately, we run a pro-style, run first offense in which the linemen are required to block like it is a run every play in order to sell the play-action fake. We can't run block, so there's no reason to think we can fake-run block either.
In addition, most of the passing plays have slow developing routes whose success is predicated on a legitimate run game. The problem, previously stated, is that we can't run the ball effectively enough to make defenses keep eight players in the box, and Murray ends up throwing to covered receivers, and often into double coverage.

On a less schematic note, the general attitude and personality of the team the past two years has and is a major concern. The Dawgs looked uninterested against Miss St, which should have been billed as a must-win game all week during practice. During the first 18 minutes of the Colorado game, the team looked rejuvenated by AJ Green's return. Then he misses a few series with a minor injury, and the team deflated to Miss St level. Disappointing. It's clear there is a substantial lack of on-field leadership.

Here is a scary thought, the biggest three wins of the past two and a half years were as follows: '07 Florida, '08 Auburn, '08 Hawaii (actually in 2009, I know).
What is the common theme of those three wins?
In each, Georgia used some hokey motivational tool to get themselves amped up. "The Celebration" against Florida, and the black jerseys against Auburn and Hawaii.
Make no mistake, this should give Dawgs fans a collective pause. Is this what we've become? An under coached, under achieving team more concerned with vanity and "cool jerseys" than out-preparing, out-hustling, and out-playing the opponent?

I hate to say it, but I think Georgia is lost in the forest. I just hope we won't wander around for forty years.