About a decade ago my first son Alex was struggling with one of the many things 16-year-olds struggle with. As a good Dad I gave him the old "you can do anything -- anything is possible" pep talk hoping to encourage him to overcome whatever obstacle he thought was stopping him. Not too long after this interaction he asked me, in an unrelated conversation, if I ever thought we would see a black U.S. president.

One cannot help but feel a bit pessimistic about American politics these days -- a contrasting feeling to the heady days