I was there, on the ground, in 2009, when President Obama took the oath of office. I remember the palpable sense of deflation as he gave his first inaugural address. After a campaign where he clearly seemed to get it, he didn’t get it.
What the country needed right then was a narrative, a story. Here’s how we got here. These are the malefactors. Here is what we will do to win back our country.
Those were dark days. Frightening. The banking system was falling apart. Unemployment was spiking. The global economy was on a razor’s edge.
And there was a story to tell. There were malefactors. There was a path. But the path needed a story, a true and compelling story, to carry us through, to win the day.
