# 57th Presidential Inaugural Preparations
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 17, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515 "2013-01-17T15:44:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/21 "2013-01-21T19:18:12Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Justice Scalia looked like a Renaissance doge in his hat: [http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/01/21/rendered/a7474383b5a383d0a05858b6fc837f7b\_521x675.jpg](http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/01/21/rendered/a7474383b5a383d0a05858b6fc837f7b_521x675.jpg)
You’re so right! [Portrait of Federico da Montefeltro](http://www.allartclassic.com/pictures_zoom.php?p_number=45&p=&number=FRP001), by Piero Dela Francesca, 1465.
Also, attention must be paid to the Obama women’s collective sartorial domination:
[http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2013/01/michele-obama-in-thom-browne.html](http://www.tomandlorenzo.com/2013/01/michele-obama-in-thom-browne.html)
That coat! That belt! Those gloves! Those BOOTS! Can’t wait to see what she wears tonight.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/22 "2013-01-21T19:33:59Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Justice Scalia looked like a Renaissance doge in his hat: [http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/01/21/rendered/a7474383b5a383d0a05858b6fc837f7b\_521x675.jpg](http://cdn.theatlanticwire.com/img/upload/2013/01/21/rendered/a7474383b5a383d0a05858b6fc837f7b_521x675.jpg)
Apparently its part of the uniform. In 2009, a couple of the Justices were wearing them (maybe because the weather was colder?). I was kinda disappointed Scalia was the only one this time around.
I felt bad for the poor Obama girls, they looked pretty bored. I used to hate sitting through formal speeches, mass, funeral, etc. when I was a kid, so younger me sympathizes with their having to sit through so many of these things.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 21, 2013, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/23 "2013-01-21T20:38:44Z")
> [@Simplicio](#):
>
> Apparently its part of the uniform. In 2009, a couple of the Justices were wearing them (maybe because the weather was colder?). I was kinda disappointed Scalia was the only one this time around…
Nope. I’ve seen a lot of Inaugurations, and I’ve never seen anyone wear a hat like Nino’s before. The justices wear a variety of headgear, but tend to wear what Nino has on at the first GWB inaugural in 2001: [http://i.usatoday.net/news/gallery/2010/n100409\_stevens/stevens03pg-vertical.jpg](http://i.usatoday.net/news/gallery/2010/n100409_stevens/stevens03pg-vertical.jpg)
Or what Nino and Breyer are both wearing at GWB’s second, in 2005: [http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/100409/GAL-10Apr09-4268/media/PHO-10Apr09-216770.jpg](http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/gallery/100409/GAL-10Apr09-4268/media/PHO-10Apr09-216770.jpg)
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### Author:  [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/24 "2013-01-22T00:33:16Z")
i also was amused by scalia’s hat. perhaps he is the clothes horse of the court.
much more relaxed this time around.
the fellow with the poem should have thrown in an aloha in there somewhere as a nod to the president.
while waiting for the parade i was amused by the pres, malia, and sasha with thier phones. poor michelle… she must have forgot her’s or it was charging.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/25 "2013-01-22T02:27:39Z")
More on judicial hats:
[http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/01/antonin-scalia-hat-inauguration/61222/](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/01/antonin-scalia-hat-inauguration/61222/)
> **[About the Justices' Skullcaps](https://legaltimes.typepad.com/blt/2013/01/about-those-skullcaps.html)**
>
> UPDATE, 2:45 pm: University of Richmond School of Law professor Kevin Walsh is claiming that Justice Scalia's headgear is actually a replica of a hat worn by St. Thomas More. It was a gift to Scalia in 2010 from the...
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2013, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/26 "2013-01-22T07:33:35Z")
Romney did not attend. BBC said this was the first time since Dukakis that the loser in a presidential election did not attend the inauguration.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2013, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/27 "2013-01-22T07:47:33Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Romney did not attend. BBC said this was the first time since Dukakis that the loser in a presidential election did not attend the inauguration.
I wouldn’t read too much into that. Kerry, Dole\* and McCain were still Senators after they lost, Gore was still VP and Bush I was still Prez, so they were all going to be in DC anyways. Romney is the first President since Dukakis that didn’t have a work-related reason to be in DC, so its hardly surprising that they both happen to be the only recent candidates to not show up for the ceremony.
\*did he retire mid-term in '96, or did he just not run for another term that year? Well, he had recently lived in DC, anyways, even if he wasn’t Senator anymore.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2013, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/28 "2013-01-22T15:29:22Z")
Yes, Dole resigned mid-term in 1996, in the midst of his campaign against Bill Clinton, to show that he was totally committed to his quest for the White House: [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/may96/dole\_resign\_5-15.html](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/may96/dole_resign_5-15.html)
I didn’t recall that Dole, as a defeated Presidential candidate and ex-senator, still attended the 1997 Inauguration.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [January 22, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/29 "2013-01-22T15:30:55Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#):
>
> Yes, Dole resigned mid-term in 1996, in the midst of his campaign against Bill Clinton, to show that he was totally committed to his quest for the White House: [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/may96/dole\_resign\_5-15.html](http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/election/may96/dole_resign_5-15.html)
>
> I didn’t recall that Dole, as a defeated Presidential candidate and ex-senator, still attended the 1997 Inauguration.
But was Elizabeth a Senator at the time? If so, then he would have had reason to attend.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/30 "2013-01-23T14:54:52Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> But was Elizabeth a Senator at the time? If so, then he would have had reason to attend.
No, she wasn’t elected to the Senate until 2002.
The AP reported at the time that Bob Dole didn’t attend the second Clinton inauguration in 1997: [http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1997/For-GOP-double-dose-of-woe-in-inauguration-Gingrich-vote/id-4bc3841801f59e9465cb43bb10e6452f](http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1997/For-GOP-double-dose-of-woe-in-inauguration-Gingrich-vote/id-4bc3841801f59e9465cb43bb10e6452f)
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### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/31 "2013-01-23T15:00:22Z")
Just goes to show you can’t trust the godless Brits. :mad:
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [January 23, 2013, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/32 "2013-01-23T15:09:21Z")
Interestingly, the steel barriers are still in place today. The portable toilets are gone, though. The powers that be don’t seem to be in a hurry to take down this fencing stuff, though. I would have thought business owners would push for that.
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### Author:  [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)
#### Post date: [January 24, 2013, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/57th-presidential-inaugural-preparations/647515/33 "2013-01-24T18:12:28Z")
they removed the steel barriers yesterday evening. All that’s left are Jenga-like piles of jersey wall stacked in anticipation of removal. And, of course, politics as usual.
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