Register views the year

In this Sunday's Register Commentary section we three did our look-back-in-wonder thumbsucking pieces. Mark Landsbaum remembers how badly the state is misgoverned, while Steve Greenhut looked back at some local and county developments -- new sheriff in town and all. I suggested the year of big change was really a year of little change: Barack Obama's campaign most closely resembled George W. Bush's and all. Tell me what you think about 2008 finally fading.

Plus ca change!

Here's a link to the piece I did for the Register's Sunday Commentary section yesterday on the mantra of change in the presidential marathon. I hope I got a little deeper than simply deploring the use of an essentially empty slogan, given that change means little without a hinto or two as to what direction the proposed change is going. I discuss Andrew Sullivan's thought-provoking article in the December Atlantic, but conclude it's a bit pollyannish. The interests that control the two parties are still dominant, although we may be in a transition to different issues than those that have fascinated the baby boomers. But when it comes to real change, it will come from the private and independent sectors, and the politicians will deplore it or take credit for it, depending on their disposition (or how it affects their most cherished interest groups).