On Capitol Hill, party A’s influence is proportional to party B’s ability to derail A’s agenda. The one exception is when the president of the United States meets with the other party’s leaders for the first time, when “bipartisanship” is the word on everyone’s lips. President Obama (I love saying that) met with House Republicans several times before the House voted on his economic stimulus bill. The GOP contingent voted unanimously against it. And now their moment of influence is gone. They will be non-players for at least the next two years.

But now it appears that there is at least one constituency of Republicans who want the stimulus bill passed: governors. (The exception, of course, are governors who might be running in 2012.) In any case, I think the situation is best summed up by the always-wonderful Tom Toles:

Today, at precisely 9:30am, I did something I haven’t done for almost a decade. In fact, the last time I did this was January 20, 2001.

For the first time in 2923 days, I woke up to a country led by a Democrat.

Now I realize that’s hardly the most momentous realization, nor is it exclusive to me (seeing as you all did it too). But consider the ways that our lives and our country has changed since then.

The last time a Democrat was in power:

-My graduating class was barely into middle school.

-The nation was sitting pretty on a budget surplus.

-9/11 was just a date on the calendar.

-Iraq and Afghanistan were far flung backwaters many Americans couldn’t locate on maps.

-Very few considered the possibility of an African-American president in their lifetime, let alone this decade.

Obviously this country has changed a great deal, for better or worse. Regrettably, a fresh face cannot undo the errors of the past 8 years, nor are they guaranteed success in their endeavors. But like my generation, which has seen the world and their place in it change rapidly over former President Bush’s tenure, America has indeed grown up alot. At times we didn’t want to grow up and preferred regression into xenophobia and unilateralism, but today the result of our informed decision back in November is there for all to see.

And with growing up comes hard work and difficult choices. Here’s hoping President Obama can handle it.