Asia-Pacific
1 year in, hope harder to come by, Obama finds
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-01-21 16:29
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WASHINGTON: At 8:35 am on January 21, 2009, Barack Obama walked into the Oval Office for the first time as president, the hopes of Americans on his shoulders. He spent 10 minutes alone, soaking in the moment, then set about trying to deliver on the bold promises he had laid out in his inaugural address a day earlier.
In a cruel fluke of the calendar, at precisely the one-year mark in his presidency, Obama awoke Wednesday to headlines shouting about the Republican takeover of a US Senate seat from Massachusetts, an election that represented far more than a shift of a legislator from one side of the aisle to the other.
Gone was the Democrats' 60-seat supermajority in the Senate, a number that provides some impetus and protection for a president's big plans -- including Obama's prized health care overhaul. Sixty Senate votes are necessary to ensure passage of contentious legislation.
Gone, too, was the sense of heady optimism that infused the country 12 months earlier to the day.
The yes-we-can candidate had summoned Americans to join him in "remaking America" and confidently proclaimed: "What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them."
"Everybody is behind him."
The snapshots of Inauguration Day 2009 began well before dawn, when energized Americans streamed from jammed subway stations and made their way by foot toward a Capitol bathed in lights. Undaunted by the cold, they were determined to be part of the historic collage.
"Everybody is behind him," said Mikki Hill, 26, who had come from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and dared to speak for all the world. "Everybody's come from as far as the Earth is wide."
The economy was seizing, joblessness was creeping up, more troops were headed for Afghanistan.
And yet, for all the perils of the day, it was a moment of possibilities.
"Change has come to America," the White House Web site trumpeted within minutes of Obama's swearing-in.
And people believed it.
By a 3-to-1 margin, Americans that day said they felt more optimistic about the future of the country, a poll found.
"Tonight we celebrate," Obama said as he and the new first lady whirled through 10 inaugural balls. "Tomorrow, the work begins."
"It's never easy, and we're feeling that right now."
