Lupica: Obama facing change he did not want

This was before Barack Obama's campaign began to take off, before Obama began the business of dismantling the Clinton machine one primary at a time. But even in the early innings of Obama vs. Hillary Clinton, Mario Cuomo was asked what he thought about the campaign he was watching.

"It should be about clarity and solutions and ideas and real vision," the first Cuomo to be governor of New York said. "But unfortunately, it will probably come down to the things it usually does, which means money and charisma and mistakes and bull----."

He was right about all of it. That day I also asked Cuomo about the thrilling speech Obama had made when he announced he was entering the race.

"Pure, glorious rhetoric," Cuomo said, "about hope and aspiration. Just lacking specifics. Hopefully those will come later."

They did, after Obama first beat Hillary Clinton and then beat John McCain. The specifics, about the economy and health care and ginning up the war in Afghanistan, did come later.

And now, because of those specifics, just two years after one of the great political rallies and great political nights in American history - Grant Park, Chicago, Election Night 2008 - the candidate for whom President Obama is really stumping these days is himself. For the simple reason that he is in a results business.

And when you are in a results business, that means you are accountable eventually. Not the President before you.

You want to know how fast things change? The President is how fast things change. Two years after a candidate in this country became the biggest rock star in the world, these rallies of his - Boston on Saturday - make you think of oldies concerts.

The pure, glorious rhetoric is familiar, like lyrics from an old, favorite song. But two years after Grant Park, there is an element to all this, despite the President's best intentions, that remind you of the Beach Boys still singing "I Get Around."

There is a thing you learn early covering sports. You can't cover the game you expected to see, or that you hoped to see. You have to cover the game you're actually seeing. It is the same way with Obama. There is the presidency you hoped for from him, and the one you are seeing.

So now, with all the momentum he brought with him into the White House, all that wind at his back and all the numbers he had in Congress, the numbers will change in a couple of weeks. The faces will change, too, after maybe the dumbest mid-term, Carl Paladino elections ever held in this country.

And there will be this notion, from people who wanted Obama out of office even before he took office, who never had any intention of giving him a chance, that the country will somehow be better off after the 2010 version of change we're supposed to believe in. It won't be. The country still expected more from this President. Maybe too much. But more than it's gotten. Now he will be held accountable.

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