The 2009 political year began on a high note of "change" and "hope" and ended in a thud of stalemate, despair and public fury over the economy, health care reform and the war in Afghanistan. No wonder it may go down as the year of the angry voter. Americans will remember 2009 as much for the grassroots protests - at "Tea Party" rallies and town hall meetings crashed by conservatives to demonstrations by public-option-favoring anti-war progressives - as the Beltway grudge matches that characterized President Obama's first year in office. In California, residents endured months of bitter, partisan battles in...