When Barack Obama took the oath of office before a shimmering wave of humanity a year ago today with his approval rating at 70 per cent, he and the Democrats controlling Congress believed that history beckoned ”” and that they had the clout and popular support to shape it.
Yesterday the President and his party were scrambling to avoid losing Teddy Kennedy’s Massachusetts Senate seat ”” an unthinkable development even a month ago ”” and are bracing themselves for a bloodbath in congressional elections this November. It shows just what a debilitating first year they have suffered, and what a perilous 2010 beckons.