A Year Of Obama: Top Ten Highs And Lows Of The Last Twelve Months

A year ago tomorrow the nation went to polls and elected Barack Hussein Obama the 44th President of the United States. It was a joyful occasion, celebrated the world over, and variously compared to New Years Eve, the Yankees winning the World Series, the opposite of 9/11, and the proper beginning of the 21st Century. The national political mood of Election Day 2009 would likely not be recognizable to the Obama-happy nation of 12 months ago. What a difference, etc. And yet, it's hard to believe it's only been 12 months! And a mere nine-and-a-half months of actual presidency. And truly it is only a slight exaggeration to say that in the interim it's been all Obama, all the time. With that in mind let's take a look back at the Barack Obama highlights (and some lowlights) of the last year. >>>NEXT: Election Night November 4, 2008 Related: Meeting the Bushes The Inauguration Barack Obama Saves Print Media They Kill Flies, Don't They? The Beer Summit of 2009 Of Tea Parties And Town Halls You Lie! Jackass! The War Against Fox News Election Night - November 4, 2008 Oh that happy day. Seriously, there were a lot of happy people that day and it had very little to do with partisan politics. It was next to impossible not to be moved when President-elect Barack Obama took the stage with his family at Grant Park in Chicago, the first African American to be elected President. >>>NEXT: Meeting the Bushes Meeting the Bushes Less than a week after being elected the Obama's traveled to Washington to meet President and Mrs. Bush. The picture that the Times (and just about everyone else) ran on their front page the next day summed up as well as words could ever do, the changes that were in store for both the White House and the country. However, perhaps what is most amazing looking back is how normal it feels to see the Obama's as our first couple, at the time I remember it being sort of shocking, in the best 'can you believe this really happened' sort of way. >>>NEXT: The Inauguration The Inauguration Despite the struggling economy the nation was still mostly operating under a happy election euphoria come Inauguration Day. It's true! D.C. was packed with festive Inauguration goers from across the country. Schools stopped classes to allow students to watch the address (there were stories that when the power went out at one Brooklyn school student were farmed out to local living rooms). Here is Obama's speech, which I remember as being really good, though honestly at this point the President has given so many speeches I would probably have trouble discerning it from a number of other really good speeches I've heard in the interim in a blind hearing test. >>>NEXT: Barack Obama Saves Print Media Barack Obama Saves Print Media Well he saved it for a month or two anyway. The day after the election the dead tree editions of many newspapers nationwide quickly sold out due to the number of people looking for a memento of the historic occasion. The NYT quickly began reprinting the cover page and selling it on their website for $15 a pop. He wasn't so bad for magazines either. (Pic via Gawker) >>>NEXT: They Kill Flies, Don't They? They Kill Flies, Don't They If you needed any proof that perhaps the mostly male media which covers the doings of the President had a bit of a crush on Obama, you need look no further than the fly-swatting incident. The President swatted a fly. Cue gushing. >>>NEXT: The Beer Summit of 2009 The Beer Summit of 2009 The President made it through his first 100 days without much mishap. The first signs of the sort of crazy headlines that would threaten to derail his health care plan were actually of the President's own making. Behold the Beer Summit. In the aftermath of well-known Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates arrest at the hands of a white police officer, Obama took Lynn Sweet's bait during press conference and proceeded to describe the police as having acted "stupidly." Before you know it Obama's remarks have caused such an uproar that the President shortly finds himself hosting a "Beer Summit" with Gate, Biden, and the officer in question Sgt. James Crowley. >>>NEXT: Of Tea Parties And Town Halls Of Tea Parties And Town Halls It wasn't until the dog days of August truly set in, however, that the President began to feel the sting of cable newsers gone wild. After two plus years of being tied to the election narrative the media entered late summer with not a whole lot to keep themselves occupied, and the country with an economy that refused to get better. Welcome to the town hall! (Also, hello Glenn Beck!). >>>NEXT: You Lie! You Lie! Men named Joe certainly have a way of diverting the Presidential agenda. First there was Joe the Plumber, blue collar star of the 2008 election. Then there was Joe Wilson, South Carolina congressman, and the man responsible for making sure none of what President Obama said during his special joint session of Congress made it to the headlines the next day. >>>NEXT: Jackass! Jackass! Later that same week, in what began to feel like a series of outbursts that kept derailing Obama's great media plan to talk Health Care, ABC's Terry Moran twittered an 'off the record' remark by the President in which he referred to Kanye West as a 'jackass' for his treatment of Taylor Swift at the previous night's MTV Video Awards. Eventually the video reached the public, making the whole incident just that much less shocking. >>>NEXT: The War Against Fox News The War Against Fox News Phew. It's been a long nine months! NINE MONTHS. Sometimes it's difficult to remember just how short a period of time Obama has been in the White House when you, say, regard today's election coverage of three rather smallish races that in past election cycles would not have merited a blip (and yes I know Virginia is a battleground state, and NY-23 is considered by some to be a measure of whether the G.O.P. has completely gone off its rocker, but still!). Apparently the White House sussed out that we are now a country in need (want?) of continual campaign-like coverage because their declaration of 'war' on Fox News certainly successfully submerged the news cycle for the last three weeks. And voila! We have a sort of health care bill. Maybe in another nine months we'll also have a sort of ecomony. Dare to dream audaciously! Below, Anita Dunn on Reliable Sources.

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A Year Of Obama: Top Ten Highs And Lows Of The Last Twelve Months

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