Today, January 20, marks the one year anniversary of the inauguration of Barack Obama.

What a difference a year makes. Last January, he and a bunch of congressional Democrats were riding into office on a wave of momentum after an election that was indisputably historic. Today, Democrats are waking up to a bit of a nightmare. They lost their filibuster-proof advantage in the Senate after an election Tuesday in Massachusetts that was, in some ways, only slightly less historic.

So...