My conservative friends have all gone quiet online. Have they retreated to an undisclosed bunker? Are they stocking up on guns and ammo? Are they depressed? Do they think the world is coming to an end? I can only speculate based on what they said before the election. If they don’t want to give Obama a chance and want to be miserable for the next four years, then that’s their prerogative. I gave Bush a chance in 2000. I vote for him. It wasn’t until after 9/11 that my support for him began evaporating. It wasn’t until after the taking of Bagdhad it was gone.

I told them at the outset of this campaign, I wouldn’t say ‘I told you so’ if Obama won and I won’t when he is inaugurated. I was cautiously optimistic about the election, but didn’t want to say anything to jink it. I would not have been surprised if the Republicans stole the election again. There are two possible reasons for why they didn’t. The Bush-Cheney cabal isn’t as evil as I thought they were. Or they’ve so damaged the country not even an Obama led country can fix it. We’ll know in the first six months how bad it really it is and within in a year how long it’s going to take to repair the damage.

Obama has only one year to begin turning this nation around. Why one year? Because in year two the next election cycle begins. It will a spectacle. So will the Republicans work with Obama or will they draw a line in the sand and be obstructionist? Not much was accomplished by a Democratically controlled Congress after they took over in 2006. If the Republicans want real bipartisanship and Democrats resist the urge to steamroll them, we’ll see progress.