chicus.com

Obama's Inauguration
Jan 20, 2009
Howdy folks. I've been trying to teach you patience and denial of self by denying you a new article. Did it work? Actually, I don't know how long it has been but it feels long to me so I guess that is what counts. I do have something I was working on and put down, I will get it to you at some point. However, I thought it might be fun to share some thoughts about the inauguration and all things surrounding it.

First off, 4 days of coverage was a bit much for me. However, at least I knew to expect it this time and could therefore largely steer clear of the news stations. They started covering it in earnest on Saturday and will continue through at least noon tomorrow, I suspect. It was over-covered but it was over-covered in proportion to its magnitude. Everything deemed newsworthy gets too much attention these days so at least they spent far too much time on news that was worthy of being covered, not Britney's latest run-in with self-destructive behavior.

The tally I saw for the festivities was $150-160 million. Ridiculous. I am a bit disappointed that the man who canceled fireworks after his victory would allow such spending with the current economic situation. I give him credit in that a lot of it was truly open to the public to share in this momentous day, an effect of which was surely a lot of spending on additional security. My personal favorite was the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball which included a lot of people from poorer areas of DC. This was a classy move, I have to say. I had heard on CNN, however, that the largest corporate donors were the same financial institutions which were bailed out just months ago (can't find a citation for that). Along those lines, if the main message of his speech was that we as a country need to step up I don't think he led by example in the spending on this celebration.

I watched the ceremony from a conference room in our office. I found it strange that they tuned into the local Fox affiliate but really I suspect it would be the same on any station. The only exception being that after his speech they cut away to Reagan's speech writer's reaction rather than listen to the poet.

Aretha Franklin. I didn't care for her hat but was more open to her rendition of My Country Tis of Thee than most others I have talked to.

I guess Obama voted against Roberts' confirmation and I heard someone quip that Roberts screwing with the oath was his way of getting back at it. My guess is that it is bunk and I hope that theory doesn't have any legs. However, how many times must he have practiced it? I am kind of surprised he would muff it.

I'm going to have to really dive into the inaugural address at a later point. I heard it live and heard some rehashing of it later in the afternoon on the radio but haven't been home to reread it. However, I will say my first reaction was that the tone was much more of the necessary collaboration of the people than I recall from previous speeches. That isn't a knock on Bush doing what he wanted and ignoring the people's voice. Obama's tone seemed to be calling for collaboration in the way of sacrifice and making unpleasant decisions.

I am glad this is all over. It was fun while it lasted but I am ready for Obama to be judged on his actions, not on who he is. Many voted for or against him strictly on his race, regardless of how his ideas reflected their own. He has gained a lot of blind support in the States and worldwide. The United States had that just under 8 years ago and it was wasted. I hope the fervor he has awoken in world leaders and the general public can be sustained to make some real changes for the better.