2009 has to be better

2009 has to be better

Scripps Howard News Service: The year 2008 in the United States will be remembered for two events: the near magical election of our first African American president and the domino-like collapse of Wall Street. Unfortunately, the year is likely to be remembered more for the latter than the former and 2008 could go down as one of those financial watersheds like 1929 or 1933 or, if we’re lucky, 1982.

The year began promisingly with an impressive field of presidential candidates, was quickly winnowed down. John McCain made a miracle comeback to take the Republican nomination. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton went on to wage our history’s longest and most expensive and, for political junkies, enthralling race for their party’s nomination.

Perhaps the nation was too transfixed by that contest to truly digest an ominous portent of the carnage to come when investment bank Bear Stearns failed in March.

The Republican convention featured the introduction of the charming and at times alarming Sarah Palin. Obama accepted the Democratic nomination in a tightly scripted outdoor stadium appearance that led to comparisons, not always favorably so, to a rock star. He will be inaugurated president to unrealistically high hopes and expectations, not only here but abroad as well.

A Zogby poll found that only 43 percent of Americans think 2009 will be a better year for them than 2008 and only 40 percent believe that babies born in 2009 will have a better quality of life than preceding generations.

Let’s hope the nation’s spirits recover along with the economy in 2009.