Can that be right? Can my last post really be a Tony Bennett tribute from all the way back in April, 2009?
Yeah, I guess so.
One of the things I have realized during my off-periods of political blogging is how much easier it is to do this during Election Season, and even more so when your side is winning. When this blog first began back in late 2006, the Bush Administration was flailing under the weight of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, a shitty economy, torture scandals, and Dick Cheney shooting his friends in the face. The Democrats were poised to possibly take control of Congress for the first time in over a decade and stop the neoconservative agenda in its tracks. Though I had been itching to blog politically for years, it was only this crescendo of progressive possibility that finally inspired me to create Today's Lies.
Once up and running, I was able to blog consistently all the way through those wonderful November '06 midterms, and for several months beyond. After awhile, though, the high of the elections wore off. Democrats in Congress, while able to slow a good bit of the Bush program down, could not stop everything, and often behaved fecklessly. As important as it is for folks to understand the politics of stalling, it is not a very inspiring subject to write about. I got annoyed by people who seemed to think that with the Dems controlling Congress, that meant they could dictate their own agenda to a sitting president, when in reality that's not at all how that relationship works. However, it certainly wasn't an inspiring dynamic to write about, either.
Neither was it compelling to dutifully note how Hillary Clinton appeared to be walking away with the upcoming 2008 presidential nomination and, in my mind, endangering the Democrat's chances for what should be a lock-year.
Then came along a guy by the name of Barack Obama, who jump-started a sluggish primary challenge for the presidential nomination with a truly amazing speech at the 2007 Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Des Moines, IA. A couple months after that, he shocked the world and won the Iowa Caucuses, a crushing blow to the Clinton juggernaut that she never recovered from. That night, I kicked off the blog again in the grip of genuine, idealistic synergy with the Obama campaign. Over the next year, I hardly paused, covering the most exciting and infuriating primary season of my lifetime: Clinton vs. Obama. It got so treacherous at points that even after Obama had locked up enough delegates and the nomination, I really didn't know if the future president could hold the party together to win the general election.
Needless to say, 3 shutout debates, Sarah Palin and an economic collapse later, the phrase "President Barack Obama" became part of our national lexicon. And I rejoiced.
Then, governing happened. The president's numbers sank, along with the Democratic-controlled Congress. And I stopped blogging.
I'll have a lot more to say going forward about how I believe this president has been wildly successful on several fronts, and obviously less so on others. But for right now, my attempt here is to kickstart this blog during a period of severe political adversity for our side—a first for Today's Lies. Let's get it started.
9/15/2010 12:07 PMSuzanne wrote:
OMG! It's like a voice from beyond the grave! Hello *waves furiously* Looking forward to more posts from you! Reply to this
9/16/2010 3:01 PM
Sarah wrote:
Welcome Back! With all the craziness that's been going on it's time. Where the hell is this country headed?! Reply to this
