34 short months ago, my son and I stood in front of the U.S. Capitol in 15 degree weather to watch Barack Obama's inauguration. It was January 20th, and the economy had already shed more than a half million jobs on the year, on the way to losing about 2 million for the first quarter of 2009. The final month of the Bush presidency, December of 2008, posted a negative annualized GDP of 8.9%. The banking system was teetering on complete collapse. The auto industry was on life support. The Dow was at 7900. We were mired in two, intractable, un-winnable wars. Quick, unpopular, bold action was necessary to save the country, and the world, from a full-on depression. The nation was in crisis, our economy in shambles.