But with the governor popular and the public more content and optimistic, it will be hard for any Democratic nominee to convince voters that it's time for a change.
"It's time for a change, we need something new, " he said, standing on the steps of the Se Cathedral, the sign of the cross on his forehead in ash.
McCain kept referring to Barack Obama as his young opponent, and Barack Obama kept discussing some of the policies that have gone wrong over the past eight years and why it's really a time for change.
In an essay, Clayton Christensen, a business prof at Harvard, says it's time for computers to change education in a radical way.
Busch III, newly named president, went behind his father's back and convinced the board of directors it was time for a change.
Dan Corry, NPC's chief executive, said it was a "time of radical change for charities", coping with spending cuts and a rapidly changing landscape.
It's a change that's been considered for some time, and the Army is now at the tail end of a six-week trial of more than 300 Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone devices for military use.
ENGADGET: US Army runs smartphone trial, could see 'limited deployment' later this year
It's time to put aside the intense partisanship of the past in favor of a coalition for change which encompasses both parties.
When he joined the deregulation committee ten years ago, he says, he thought it a waste of time, with Japan's famously powerful bureaucracy too entrenched for much to change.
And this time, and a very historic time because this time, while there is a change in majorities, for the first time in - I believe it's for the first time, the sergeant at arms is retained from the previous majority.
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