Rather than asking whether we are better off today than we were four years ago, we really should be asking whether the Republican Party is more or less dysfunctional and deranged than it was four years ago. By almost any measure, we’re better off than we were when Barack Obama was inaugurated, but that is not the most important question. Elections are choices. And the choice isn’t between sticking with Barack Obama or going back to the land of Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales and John Bolton. We’d be fortunate to have that choice.
