A new beginning
January 20th, 2009 by ptmSo we’ve been meaning to reboot this site (which has, as you might be aware, been dormant for a couple of months) since the start of the new year. Well, what better time to do that than on this historic day? None…none better time.
That being said, I was up early on the west coast to watch the inauguration events unfold. And I kept a little live diary of it. It’s after the fold. I will come back and edit it later, but as of this posting (9:46am PST) I’m just putting up what came out in real time. Welcome back, SP readers.
(Reuters/Brian Snyder)
8:23am PST:
Fired up the computer as I watched the first few (for me, anyway) minutes of the broadcast. The vaunted Ex-Presidents and their wives were introduced. The response was, to put it lightly…partisan. Jimmy Carter: robust applause. Bill Clinton: huge ovation. George HW Bush: …crickets. And, man, did Bush I look a little frail. It definitely says something that the CNN broadcasters just had an exchange like this:
Blitzer: “Pres. Clinton looks really good, doesn’t he?”
Cooper: “Yes, and so did Pres. Carter.”
Blitzer: “Yes, he did.”
Cooper: “…yup.”
8:26am:
Images of the Obama kids walking through the Capitol, with the announcers saying, “a roar has just gone up around us at pictures of those kids.” This is accompanied in the background by…utter silence. So maybe HW Bush did get some applause. Or boos. A proper assessment of the crowd noise by the TV broadcast might be off the table.
8:27am:
Cooper: “There are three first ladies on the stage. Aretha Franklin is the first lady of soul.” So who did Aretha displace: Rosalyn, Barbara or Hillary?
8:29am:
Laura Bush annouced, to the first sounds of audible grumbles. They are quickly overshadowed by applause from those assembled on the main stage itself. (Facade? What exactly is that area called?) We also just had an Al Gore sighting, sitting behind Bill and Hillary Clinton. No lie, he was sighing very deeply.
8:30am:
My God, there are a ton of people there. Unbelievable.
8:32am:
And here comes Michelle and…uh, Mrs. Biden. After the whole “He could have been Secretary of State!” thing yesterday, I should know her name. Jill? Jane? And why was that supposed to be such a huge blunder? I think I saw Pat Buchannan trying to convince me that it means that Biden stopped Hillary from being VP. Any chance you can get to drive a wedge, huh, guys?
8:33am:
And heeeeeeere’s W! Walking into the building, looking a little awkward. I wonder if he’s afraid of a bad crowd reaction. I’m very much looking forward to what might happen. It could be delicious. Or really uncomfortable.
8:34am:
Cooper: “Bill Bennett, you’re a student of history. How do you feel about this peaceful transition of power?” Yes, Bill…please discuss all the violent coups that you have studied in American history, and describe how this is different.
8:35am:
Cheney in a wheelchair! In other news, Americans used to have slaves, and slaves helped to build the Capitol.
8:36am:
W, Cheney and the Republican leaders are introduced. You can almost here the loud click of the crowd mics being turned off. All you heard was applause. And it sounded like four people clapping.
8:37am:
“And that’s the last time Pres. Bush will have Hail To The Chief played for him.” Mmmmmmmm…swirl it around in your mouth, America. Tastes good, doesn’t it?
8:39am:
Wolf Blitzer comes in to let us know that HW Bush had back surgery a couple of years ago and walks like that now. He is not in pain; “he is just like that.” OK, Wolf…thanks.
8:40am:
Biden time! Also our first shot of Barack. I think he already is starting to get gray in his hair. By the end of the next four years, will his hair be totally, uh, white? Is that racist to ask?
8:43am:
Those are some cold-looking buglers.
8:44am:
Here we go.
8:45am:
That was a pretty excited crowd. Two things: “Barack H. obama,” huh? Skipping the Hussein thing for now? Also, as he walked down the stairs, I wonder if he had to keep tellng himself, “Don’t go straight to the mic and start orating. Don’t go straight to the mic and start orating.”
8:46am:
I really hope that future-history doesn’t make us feel that the buzz and excitement about all of this was ridiculous or all in vain. In other news, don’t let us down too much, Barack.
8:48am:
Feinstein, please don’t mention bullets. Seriously. Although I do like that she just said that this will mark, “real and necessary change in our country.” And W is like, “Uh, dude…I’m right here.”
8:49am:
Pastor Warren comes up to a collective, “Eh?” It’s kind of like the inauguration committee wanted to make sure this reflected people’s feelings about election night.
8:50am:
Warren is the first guy to directly mention the whole first-African American-president thing. It seemed to go over well.
8:51am:
CNN just cut to a random street corner of a handful of people straining to see/hear the proceedings. I think it might have been in Silver Spring. (Disclosure: I was typing, and may have missed a graphic telling what they were showing. I still choose to think that it was the back of the crowd8:5 at the Mall.)
8:53am:
So…this might be a dumb question. But are these prayers always so aggressively and obviously Christian? I thought it would be a little more vague and inclusive. It’s especially strange to hear the Our Father, considering that Obama is a Muslim Arab.
8:56am:
Aretha spends too much time living in the upper register, sort of like an 80s hairband singer who is now set only to wail. Furthermore, are there five first ladies on the stage now, or did Aretha also take Laura and Michelle’s titles?
8:57am:
Now welcome Robert Bennett, who no one really gives a shit about.
8:58am:
Joe Biden gets sworn in…on a ridiculously huge Bible. Seriously, what page has the drawing of the Ark of the Covenant being carried and shooting out God’s glory?
8:59am:
There was one moment where it looked like Biden was about to drop his line. He recovered quickly though. I wonder how late he was up last night, pacing around his room, repeating the parts over and over to himself. “Upon the office I am about to enter. Upon the office I am about to enter. Come on, Joe…you got this.”
9:00am:
They just went all top balcony on us, going fancy with the classical music. Which is sort of cool, except now Obama and Biden have to awkwardly turn around and look behind them to watch it. I can almost see Obama’s brain thinking, “How long do I have to stay in this position? Is it rude to just sit back and close my eyes and pretend I’m listening to this instead of practicing the speech?”
9:02am:
The decision is made: no, that is not rude.
9:02am:
Wolf Blitzer chimes in to tell us that it’s past noon on the east coast, meaning Obama is already President. Which is pretty sweet. Although I, for one, would like our new president to spend more time working and less time sitting around lollygagging at fancy publicly-funded events. Where’s our stimulus package, Barack? Huh? Where?
9:03am:
Congratulations, random dude on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial: you made it onto CNN’s coverage of this event, in all the glory of HD. You are now part of history. The bad news: you were munching with open mouthed enthusiasm on a granola bar.
9:05am:
Only when the song ends did I realize that the classical players were a Jewish violinist, an Asian cellist and a black clarinet player. I see what you did there.
9:05am:
And here we go, Part II.
9:06am:
You know, I sort of think the best part of Obama is that, for all his cool and his badassness, he still gets subtly yet obviously flustered at times. Not in important ways, but in a “I’m going to start repeating the oath too soon and then forget one of my lines” kind of way.
9:07am:
“The 44th President of these United States, Mr. Barack Obama.” I mean…seriously? Wow.
9:08am:
Speech time. I’m just listening and not typing.
9:28am:
I guess you could say he’s pretty good at giving a speech.
The potential “future inaugural speech montage” pull quotes:
-the line about America getting up, dusting itself off, and facing the future.
-the part about prosperous nations reaching outside its borders to help the poor of the world…God willing, that will be seen as a “We will land a man on the moon” moment where a president got the ball really rolling on a big undertaking.
-”a man whose father 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant.”
-And another early one that I can’t currently remember…I’ll get back to you on it.
And while history might not focus on it, I think the whole, “We cannot sacrifice our principles” section will resonate a lot in the present. Hat tip to CNN for cutting to W as that was being said. Well done.
There were a couple of moments (including the change line above) where Obama paused for applause that didn’t come. He seemed to say, “Come on, guys…that line should kill. Nothing? Really?”
I also liked how there was a lot of, “You now, we are seriously messed up. Shit is getting real.” There was soaring rhetoric and all that…but also some stone-hard stuff about our challenges. And I liked that he gave a better, “Don’t fuck with us, terrorists, because we will fuck you up” line than Bush ever gave.
I furthermore liked all the, “America can lead again. We can take our place in the world again” talk. Although that time we didn’t get the cut to Bush. But, again, he was probably thinking, “I’m still right here, guys. At least wait ’til I get on the helicopter.”
And the Bill O’Reilly/Sean Hannity clip: the old black guy in the crowd who looked like he had been lulled to sleep by Obama’s speech. “He talks so much! All flourish no content! Blah blah blah!”
9:32am:
This poet is rambling about stuff, teachers and knitting and tires. Cameras cut to the mall and people are streaming away to get out of downtown DC. I’m sure the poetry students in my class are crying at that.
9:37am:
I don’t doubt that Obama is really enjoying this benediction. But with his eyes closed and his head nodding, I sort of think that he’s just singing something to himself.
9:38am:
“When black can get back, brown does not need to get down, yella can be mella, the redman can get ahead man, and white will do what is right.” Wow. This truly is a new era.
9:39am:
And, in the end, Barack caves on the whole “hand over the heart for the national anthem” thing. Look, you do that for the Pledge of Allegiance, not the Star Spangled Banner. But whatever…he’s wise to do that now and not deal with the stupid chatter of mindless insects.
9:40am:
Cooper: “Barack Obama is now the 44th President of the United States.” Amen. And we immediately go to some dude comparing the tight and packed conditions on the Mall to the hull of a slave ship. A classy way to end the proceedings, and to end this post.