HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, MR. PRESIDENT – AT 8:24 A.M. ET:  Barack Obama became president of the United States one year ago today.  At this moment, a year ago, he was probably dressing for the occasion.

Who would have thought, one year later, on this anniversary, that Mr. Obama would be reflecting on the fact that the Democratic Party, under his leadership, could not hold onto the Senate seat that had been occupied by Ted Kennedy.

At the White House, they must be asking whether they'll actually allow Massachusetts to secede, or whether they'll order Gen. McClellan north to stop the outrage.

There is, across the internet, a kind of numbness.  Yes, some pundits have spoken, and have not said much.  But in the face of revolution, silence is often the wisest response.  We have not had a political result like this in many decades.

I recall, walking through the streets of Chicago at 5 a.m., the day after the 1960 election, savoring the apparent victory of John F. Kennedy over the loathed Richard M. Nixon.  Who would have thought then that, 50 years later, the Democratic Party would come to this?  The party of Roosevelt and Truman, the party that really did try to stick up for the average guy, the national defense party that ran to the right of the GOP on military preparedness, has become a pathetic mess, an elitist bunch of Aspen-skiing, terrorist coddling  snobs, so out of touch with the common man that its Senate candidate in Massachusetts couldn't even correctly identify the team loyalty of a local baseball legend.  It's as if someone running for senator from New York thought Joe DiMaggio was a St. Louis Cardinal. 

What is the president thinking today?  Well, being Barack Obama, he's probably thinking that it's someone else's fault.  It was Martha Coakley.  Ran a bad campaign.  It was the Senate Dems, who didn't see it coming.  It was Sean Hannity.  Rush.  O'Reilly.  Wait.  It was certainly BUSH (!!), and probably CHENEY (!!!).  Maybe even Liz Cheney.

It was Obama.  He hovered over this race like Nancy Pelosi over a wine and Brie party.

Now the question, on this first anniversary, is how the president responds.  That response may well shape the remainder of his term, possibly his only term.

January 20,  2010