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.