"Well, first of all, the euphoria that attended the election of the first African-American president four years ago has dissipated," Sapphire replied. "Remember that article you wrote for The Root about Obama's first inaugural? You were so happy about him getting the job that you couldn't stop singing!"

"You're right," I replied somewhat sheepishly.

"You and a lot of other folks were flying so high that you forgot how inexperienced, maybe even naive, Obama really was and how determined and ruthless his opposition could be," Buckwheat said. "We thought he could walk on water and reverse the calamities caused by the fecklessness of his predecessor overnight and all by himself. So even though he accomplished plenty during his first four years, we felt a little let down. The simple truth is that his performance wasn't disappointing, but our expectations were unrealistic! "

"Luckily, enough of us got a grip on ourselves to send him back to the White House for another four years," Kingfish said. "And this time around, both he and we have changed. Since the election, he has been playing hardball with those loony, right-wing Republicans instead of trying in vain to find bipartisan compromises with them. He has been one bad mother--"

"Shut your mouth," a deep voice thundered from the top of the stairs.

"About time you showed up, Shaft," Tonto declared. "But to continue the point Kingfish was making, we're different as well. We know that no president can accomplish what needs to be done all by himself, no matter what he intends. America is a democracy, and that means it's up to the people to organize and keep pushing for change, to be insistent and persistent without becoming shrill or personal, unlike some of the loudmouth public intellectuals who've been giving Obama a fit.

"Obama is not the enemy and never has been," Tonto added. "Our job is to outorganize and outpolitick the Republican right-wingers who want to thwart our progress on every issue from gun control to tax reform and ending the war in Afghanistan. They're not going away just because Obama won the election. We've got to beat them!"

"Come on, we don't want to be late. CPT is such stereotypical behavior," said Charlie Chan, sliding into the driver's seat as the rest of the crew piled into the passenger compartment. The famed fictional detective stomped on the gas and the Humwee sped away, en route to Washington to witness history.

Jack White, a former columnist for Time magazine, is a freelance writer in Richmond, Va.

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