On Tuesday evening, at the cusp of the dinner hour, I found myself in a Pearl District ballroom with more than 350 progressives, all eager to be fired up by a charismatic African American who still believes in hope and change.

Barack Obama? That is so two years ago.

.

Speaking to an overflow crowd in the White Stag building, Jones -- author of "The Green Collar Economy" and Obama's former adviser on green jobs -- confessed surprise that so many Portlanders decided to catch him live and the

on YouTube.

Which means, Jones said, that he must suffer from the same "low self-esteem" that is crippling progressive Democrats:

"When we hit them (conservatives) hard, they get mad. When they hit us hard, we get sad. Reflective."

Jones was in the White House for less than six months before

hit him with everything Fox News had, resurrecting all the incendiary things Jones said before he evolved from an angry Marxist into an environmentalist with a passion for social justice. When it became public that Jones signed a petition suggesting that the Bush administration allowed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to happen in its quest for Iraqi oil, he was forced to resign.

He had fun with those who arrived at the

event expecting bruises or apologies.

"'You should have never let Van Jones in the White House?'" Jones said, mocking his critics. "No. You should have never let me out."

In a memorable hour on stage, Jones argued that the lesson in Obama's first two years is clear:

"Turns out hope is a lot easier than change."

But the blame for that, he added, doesn't fall on Republicans or "the hot beverage movement."

"I never remember the slogan being, 'Yes, He Can,'" Jones said. "The slogan was 'Yes, We Can.' And the 'we' went away.

"If there's a hope gap in America, don't look at Obama. It didn't start with him. It started with you. You thought 2008 was the finish line, the finish line for your vision and your commitment. They stood up. You lay down. And the stakes are too high for us to be indulging ourselves in this pity party."

The environment is particularly toxic, Jones said, for those who have been "run over by this economic catastrophe," especially Gulf War veterans, families that have lost homes to foreclosure, and the generation of high-school and college grads who can't find jobs.

"Don't tell me we can't do better," Jones said. "People in both parties are trying to convince you we live in Bangladesh, that all we can do is throw the American people overboard and tell them to sink or swim, just like we did after Katrina.

"In a crisis, we don't turn on each other. We turn to each other."

"I want you to own your history," Jones said. "You saw what this country looks like when you stood up. United. Inspired. You see what America looks like when you sit down.

"Our success in life gives us our confidence. Our setbacks give us character. This is a character-testing moment for our movement."

And it shouldn't be difficult, Jones said, to remember what brought that movement together in the first place:

"We believed we lived in a country where two little black girls could play on the White House lawn ... and not, at the end of the day, get on a bus and go away, but walk through the front door of the White House, get in bed, pull the covers up, say, 'I love you, Dad,' and go to sleep.

"In America.

"You made that possible. You tell me why a movement that beautiful thinks anything is impossible now."

--