2009: "I think he's done as well in the situation as anyone could have done."

My year end political post starts with a question I just asked my father. I note here, for those who don't know, that my father is a retired educator, whose field is American History, and frankly he knows as much as anyone I've ever met about American history and has a very clear sighted view of the past, present, and future.

So I asked him (while he was cooking eggs for breakfast for me, my spouse, and three grandchildren--two mine and one my strangely tall nephew):

"What grade you would give...