I'm old enough. I've seen them all.
LBJ and Nixon, Ford and Carter, Regan and Bush 1 and Clinton and Bush 2. I have never ever seen a president being so hated by almost half of the country even before he took office, and being dump by so many from the other half so quickly after he took it. I have never ever seen a president being treated with so much disrespect, condescendence, mockery and even cruelty already in the middle of his first year, regardless the situation he inherited or his many good and important achievements.
My African-American friends say that this was always going to be the fate of the first black president. That a white president, in the same situation, would be given much more time and treated with far more respect. Maybe, I don't know. At this point both my head and heart are too tired. It's an extraordinary difficult day for me to realize that this presidency might already be over. But this enormous backlash, ranging from legitimate criticism to real heavy hate, feels irreversible.
Everyone will have their opinion on why it happened at all, and why it happened so fast. Almost everyone will blame Obama. I'm not even going to get into that debate – being Barack Obama supporter might be the loneliest place in the world right now - but what happened in Massachusetts of all places, before Obama even gave his first SOTU, and with health care reform basically on life support - suggest to me that it's a rift that won't be repair. I wish I'm wrong. I'll be dancing in the streets if i am.
It's heartbreaking for me on a personal level. In my age, there's a slim chance that I'll ever get to see another president who will be a very decent man, will be serious about being a president and treat me as an adult – Two virtues that as Joe Klein wrote in this brilliant piece, somehow turned into Obama's biggest problems – and will inspire me so much to try and be a better person, even if it's really hard to teach old dog new tricks.
All that makes this a very sad day for me, but tomorrow will be better. From where I sit now, life is literally very short, and it's better to be grateful for what happened than dwelling on what might have been.
Thanks for reading.