I wish someone would point out that “change” can be for the better — or the worse. A hurricane comes along after weeks of sunshine? That’s change. Lose your job? That’s change. America suffering defeat at the hands of al-Qaeada or intimidated by a nuclear-wielding Iran? Those, too, would qualify as changes.

What America needs is not change for the sake of change but postive change, change that improves the lives of Americans, real reform — and those are not easy to bring about. They require more than hope and soaring rhetoric.