The inauguration was at midnight Thailand time, and we were up watching it.
I have to say that I thought Aretha Franklin was embarrassingly terrible. That is the worst version of the song I’ve ever heard.
This controversial preacher, whom I’ve been fortunate until now never to have heard of, came across as a real Bozo. No doubt this has been pointed out already in this thread, but he referred to Obama’s father as an “immigrant,” when he was actually a foreign student studying in Hawaii. He was no more an immigrant than my wife was; she was also a foreign student studying in Hawaii – also at the East West Center – when I met her.
The preacher also said something about there having been “44 peaceful transitions” in the presidency. Well, that’s not quite true. What about, say, Chester A. Arthur, who became president upon Garfield’s assassination and then never won a presidential election on his own? I thought the preacher was a dick. I can’t even remember his name now and can’t be bothere to look him up. But from what I’ve heard of him, I’m lucky to be so unaware of him. These smarmy inaugural prayers are for the birds anyway IMHO.
I’ve decided I cannot entertain any thoughts of becoming president myself, because Charles Bukowski is no longer alive to give my inaugural poem. Man, I wonder what that would have been like.
I haven’t had time to read through every post, but I’ve really enjoyed the perspective of those of you who got to watch it at home. I’m about to board a plane from JFK to LAX, so I don’t have time for commentary, but here was our vantage point, and several other pics can be scrolled through. They just called our section – gotta fly!
On another note, I listened to the luncheon speech and was impressed. I can’t find a transcript but my favorite part was something like this, “Americans expect us not to make a name for ourselves, but to make a name for them.” Loved it.
No kidding! And TALL people! And the slope of the “hill” (duh)! We basically watched it all on the jumbotrons just like all the other “plebes” on the mall. But just to be there was incredibly exciting.
I haven’t heard that speech yet. We’ve been extremely limited in electronic media; the television in the studio we rented didn’t work and there was no wifi. The only way we could connect to the internet was to piggyback off of Thomas’s Blackberry, which was a very weak link that constantly fell off. I know it sounds weird, but I really miss the news! (Though I did get to meet and chat briefly with Joan Walsh of Salon/MSNBC.)
We met a lot of awesome people. DC is a wonderful city and we can’t wait to go back.
My friend Barry was there in DC, and he’s a really talented photographer. He took this pic of the US Army Fife and Drum Corps, and I just love the expressions on these guys faces. Especially the second guy from the right and the second guy from the left.
How exciting!