A Short Four Years Ago.

Read Tony Hendra's We See That Now. I suppose I should warn you that it's not for the faint of heart or for conservatives who are feeling neglected today, the day before Obama's inauguration.

Hendra's piece recalls the rage that so many of us felt at the time of Bush's second inauguration. If he could be re-elected after all he did, was there any realistic alternative but to give up and become Republican? Garrison Keillor would open his show with "We're All Republicans Now." It's like being alone and bound by duct tape: just stop that pointless struggling and get used to it.

Meanwhile, you grow numb to all the scandals and scoundrels and numb even to all the pointless deaths. It took Hurricane Katrina to break through the mental fog.

Let us remember. Let us vow "never again."