The Inaugural Address

“As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.”

Bush has to feel about three inches high at the moment. He’s sitting there, on that platform, as Obama says those words, and over a million voices ROAR in approval.

That is my favorite moment of this address — with this as a close second:

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”

Amen. Let’s get to work.

The Inauguration, continued.

– ARETHA. No, let me say that again: A R E T H A. Holy crap.

– John Paul Stevens administering the oath to VP Biden. With that, the man who was truly ruling the country for the last 8 years, Dick Cheney, is deposed.

– Quartet featuring Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma, in a composition arranged by John Williams. “Simple Gifts” is one of my favorite pieces, although I always hear it as “Lord of the Dance.” Very, very well done.

– The crowd is instructed to stand for the oath. Chief Justice Roberts keeps screwing up the oath! WTF? Didn’t you study? Way to throw a wrench into a historical moment, numb-nuts.

– Barack Hussein Obama is now the 44th President of the United States.

Speech reaction in a moment.

The Inauguration, continued.

– The crowd is so damn huge that MSNBC’s cameras can’t give us an overview shot without panning. From the Capitol all the way out now, past the Washington Monument, stretching up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Shots of people in the crowd, smiling, crying.

– They just announced Obama, and he’s come out onto the platform. The million-plus crowd waves small American flags — almost everybody has them, and it looks like a field of flowers. I’m trying to find a word that isn’t “amazing”, and I really can’t.

– Opening remarks from Diane Feinstein. Standard Civics 101 summation of how great the renewal of democracy is, etc. We’re not here to listen to you, Diane. Wrap it up.

– Invocation from Rick Warren. I understand why Obama asked him to do this — and yet again, Obama proves that he’s a better man than I am. No way in hell would I have reached out to the evangelical nut-job community. I’ve had enough of them.

More to come.