When Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, we all knew he was coming into office with the worst situation of any President except FDR. And possibly - no, probably - Lincoln. So, let's call it the third worst situation, overall.
The economy, at least to me, looked like it would swallow his administration whole. The economic Lehman Brothers' tsunami had traveled around the world faster than a real tsunami would have.
Everyone learned really quickly that preceding fall and that winter what mortgaged-based securities were, and at least a bit of how the investment bankers and mortgage companies had gamed the system and dumped bad securities on Europeans and Asians, and all based on OUR mortgages, which had been sent through shredders and then a random number generator so that no one knew who owned anything anymore.
If we could, a lot of us would have strung a lot of Wall Streeters up from the nearest oak tree - enough to break the limbs off all the available oaks.
Health care was not on the horizon.
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