My thoughts about yesterday:
- It's interesting to contrast Obama's Inaugural Address with his election night speech. At the time, I was struck by the restraint of the latter, the subdued, even somber tone. It sounded like he was trying to tamp down expectations. But yesterday's speech, while sober, only raised expectations. He said he was going to end the war in Iraq, rescue the economy, reform health care, green up the grid, and anybody who doubts he can do it is a cynic. Wow. I think the November speech was about resisting the urge to gloat. But he seems determined to actually enact what he ran on. Interesting.
- Without resorting to boilerplate, the speech was very, very tough on the Bush administration. I am pleased that the two of them had to sit there and listen to that.
- Here's a great rundown of the vow flub. It's the adverbial placement, stupid! Too bad we don't speak Latin; you could put the word "faithfully" anywhere you want it, and as long as it's in the ablative case (I think; I'm still a neophyte in Latin), it'd sound great.
- The Vice-Presidential oath, with all that stuff about "no mental reservation," sounds like it comes from an order for a wedding at the magistrate's office.
- Bill Clinton looked pretty grim.
- Sasha and Malia looked great!
- Rich Warren's prayer was as ecumenical as a Baptist prayer can be.
- 2,000,000 people in one place, and they were all quiet. Yesterday was special.
- If there were no last minute pardons, does that mean that former President Bush has some sort of "understanding" with President Obama? That would be not so special.
- It is tempting to "move on" and let history be the judge of the Bush administration's disregard for the Geneva Conventions and federal law, especially tempting given the magnitude of the problems we face and Obama's corresponding legislative agenda, but will history judge us if we don't investigate them?
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