As Alana noted, President Obama told a forum in Florida yesterday that the “most important lesson” he’s learned since taking office is that “you can’t change Washington from the inside.” You can only change it “from the outside.”
But this is not something he learned since taking office. He knew it four years ago, having learned it from “history.” In his acceptance speech in 2008, he told the Democratic convention that:
“You have shown what history teaches us, that at defining moments like this one, the change we need doesn’t come from Washington. Change comes to Washington. Change happens — change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time. America, this is one of those moments.”
