It's okay that you weren't called to pray until the mess in Florida - what's important is that you answered WHEN you were called. Obedience is the high calling of God!
God has also been gracious in allowing me to pray over the past almost 5 years. There have been times when I've not been impressed to pray and I've asked Him why. He's assured me that those are simply times of rest in the midst of the battle. Once you've been drawn into that kind of intimacy with the Creator of Heaven and Earth, you don't want to live a moment without it.
It sounds as though 1 Samuel 12:23 is true for both of us, "As for me, for be it for me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you."
I believe that God does intend to do some mighty works in and through our nation and He has allowed some of us to be on the "inside track" with Him. I find that I look at everything that is happening in the world in light of His mighty plan. The battle ahead of us is fierce - fortunately, the war is already won.
For from Him and through him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen Romans 11:36
I suspect you've learned, too, that prayer is the activity of the Holy Spirit. While we've prayed for the President, our nation, its leders, our society, our troops, and for God to be pleased to use our nation as one instrument of His work in the world, and we've seen Him answer prayers, the real blessing has been to be in His presence and to hear Him speak. It wasn't until we started this ministry of prayer that we came to understand that prayer is waiting upon Him to reveal His thoughts and His heart, so that we might speak what we saw and heard back to Him. It's been an amazing thing to be discipled by the Holy Spirit Himself in this.