One Year Ago...

One year ago, George W. Bush was president, the stock market was plummeting, Lehman Brothers was going bankrupt, liquidity in global credit markets was evaporating, concerns about a complete economic collapse (aka, "Great Depression II") were intensifying (even as John McCain continued to insist that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong").

Today, things are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we appear to be coming out of the recession and Great Depression Part II seems to have been avoided thanks to aggressive action by the Democratic Congress and the Obama Administration (and, in fairness, to the Bush Administration's Treasury Department). That's quite an accomplishment for the Democrats, and one that they're not getting nearly enough credit for. Oh, and speaking of the "nation of whiners" comment by top McCain advisor Phil Gramm, it's certainly not Democrats, who have rolled up their sleeves and gotten to work cleaning up the disastrous mess they inherited from Bush et al, while attempting to address long-term systemic threats to our prosperity (e.g., rising health care costs, our dependence on oil imports from countries that are not our friends) that were neglected for years by Republicans. As always, Republicans drive us into the ditch (see Gilmore, Jim), Democrats pull us out (see Warner, Mark). Go Blue Team! :)