So, I was going to write something about where I was a year ago, how things have gone from there in Obama's first year. But I'm currently consumed by blind rage at how, as usual, the Democrats are running around like headless chickens, ready to throw healthcare reform away for another ten years.

GROW A SPINE, YOU USELESS, INCOMPETENT MORONS. You control the Senate, the House, and the Presidency. ACT LIKE IT.

*ahem*

And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .

So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.