Eight years ago, I was pleased that Al Gore hadn't stolen the election from George W. Bush, and I was confident that our new Republican president could take us to bigger and better times, not burdened by Clinton's sex scandals and a small but growing recession created during the dot-com meltdown of 1999 and 2000.
Seven years ago, I was thanking the Lord that we didn't have "tree-hugger" Gore running the country in the aftermath of the 9/11 attack -- Bush had ordered a swift and effective assault on Afghanistan's Taliban and there were rumblings of future attacks in Middle Eastern countries, getting the evil terrorists (read: Muslims) who wanted to kill us.
Six years ago, I'd become convinced that Iraq was the central front on the war on terror and George Bush would bring freedom and democracy to that land while simultaneously protecting us from Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.
Five years ago, I was surprised by the fact that we hadn't found any weapons of mass destruction and that the supposedly "easy victory" in Iraq was not only still ongoing but seemed to be getting worse.
Four years ago, I was already regretting my November decision to vote for Bush (again) in the aftermath of his administration's immediate and undeserved lurch to the right on social issues, as well as the continued worsening conditions in Iraq.
Three years ago, still reeling from the Bush's administration assault on the citizens of New Orleans and a whole host of burgeoning scandals that greeted the first year of his second term, I no longer considered myself a Republican, for the first time of my life.
Two years ago, An Inconvenient Truth was favored to win the Best Documentary Oscar and I was hoping that Al Gore would make a run for the presidency in 2008, righting the "wrong" of George W. Bush and his Republican lawyers who had stolen the election from him in 2000 (with an assist from the Supreme Court).
One year ago, I'd switched from Chris Dodd to John Edwards to Barack Obama in an "anyone but Hillary" mode of hoping against hope to topple the Republican nominee, since I feared Hillary was too divisive to win over the country and we'd suffer through another four years of debilitating Republican rule. I gave money to Dodd, Edwards, and eventually Barack, and spent the year promoting Obama on this blog, my car's back bumper, and to anyone who asked. Support among friends and family was lukewarm at best -- and in fact, with the notable exception of Traum and Switsky, no one I knew was openly very anti-Bush or clamoring for a change. People, in general, even in liberal New Jersey, seemed just as likely to vote for McCain last summer. Then, of course, the economy collapsed like a house of wafer-thin cards and there's pretty much no one in this country not praying that Barack can save us. So yes, change happens fast. It happens unexpectedly. And while I'm not sure how things will be in this country one year from now, or how I will feel about it, but I do know this: Tuesday's events are a long time coming. And I'm absolutely ready for this kind of Change:
On Tuesday, Special Agent Donald White of the U.S. Secret Service will
shadow President Bush, sit in the customary front "shotgun" seat of the
limousine, and guard the President until noon. At 12:01, Agent White
steps over to a position behind Barack Obama.
