There's a difference between his campaign promises and ideas, and the "hype" imposed by Ouija people and the media.

...of course planes were flying into buildings all the time before that. One could argue that 9/11 was Bush's fault since nobody had hated America enough to do that before he was president....

DING DING DING DING! We have a winner!

I watched from the lobby of an arts center with about 50 others via choppy internet feed with no audio that kept kicking out, NPR via boom box and an old TV someone found and managed to get the local fox channel via rabbit ears. None of it was in sync.

The quartet choked me up. The scale of the crowd was mind blowing. There was a site of Bush hugging Obama that got me, too. Peaceful transfer and all that. The line about science got big applause in our lobby.

Oh, and Judge Roberts was the one who flubbed the line! That's ok. It worked.

For me, it was a day of smiles, and reserve, not cynicism. A good day.

Inaugural Address wordle

Just making sure this is noted. It is a tiny thing but we have a habit of rewriting history in the first draft.

I thought he hit that sweet spot between hope and hard work.

Apathy?

Well, after the numerous replays, I see that actually Chief Justice Roberts fucked up the quote after Obama's pregnant pause and Obama actually nailed the quote as stated to him. Well done to our first half AA and half white President.

Come to think of it he is more AA than the majority of blacks living in the US.....

Well, I wasn't able to get any reception at work. I got home and just now watched the Youtube along with a printed copy of the speech.

Obama nailed it. I'm almost willing to bet that even Obama's critics here will concede that.

As an orator, based on his DNC speech and this, I'm putting him up there with Reagan.

Obama did take a pause, but Roberts really choked. Didn't they practice this?

I finally got to watch & listen to it in its entirety. It was a very good speech better than I first thought. He touched on a lot of things that the majority wanted to here. Definitely a good start. Lets get it done.

WTF? I thought you socialists thought Reagan was the devil incarnate? no? seriously.

okay, I'm feeling kind of sorry for the Obamas tonight. Having to do all those "appearances" at all those different balls. Short speech, tiny little dance, wave to the crowd, on to the next. Lotta hard work.

I understand it's a reward for their supporters at the various venues, but still . . . seems like they ought to get to party for themselves, too.

Thought Miss Michelle's dress was ugly, though. The yellow daytime one. The ball gown is okay. Although I can't imagine the nightmare choosing both dresses was either. And she had to be warm outside today--but I didn't like the color and I kept getting distracted by the little bow or whatever it was in the middle.

Nope, no more party for them, just long hours, bullshit and exasperation, for years. Don't envy them a bit. :headshake

Rich didn't say he liked or admired the man (though he may). He was talking about his ability as a public speaker -- which even his adversaries conceded.

Well that's totally not unusual.

Okay, so the reason's different from what it used to be, but you know the saying in Washington ... It's not a party until Teddy collapses or leaves his date to die in his car in a canal.