Obamania, For Real
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Dick Cheney in a wheelchair.
Yes, I'm guessing that it looked a bit like this.
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"I'm here to rescue you from the cliches" remarked Miliband.
The one thing the British do superlatively well is irony, though in David Miliband's case I'm not sure it was intentional. I've eaten raw tofu with more personality than that man.
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I don't want to rain on everyone's nice parade, but Barack Obama is sworn in as President and but 90 minutes later Wellington City is "crippled" by a power cut....
Coincidence? -
Rick Warren was a sucky choice
I have only just discovered why. I did not realise this during his prayer.
Which meant I was listening to what he actually said, which was pretty Christian socialist, if you ask me. It did set the tone for the rest of the ceremony.
Still, I am sure Obama could have found someone else to give exactly that message so, yes, sucky choice.
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I followed the inauguration proceedings by seeing what my Twitter pals were sharing.
@stephenfry (yes, that Stephen Fry) tweeted "We will raise science to its rightful place". Yes. Yes. Yes!!! and I was very happy.
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On the other hand, the new civil rights section of whitehouse.gov (which apparently went live at 12.01pm EST, because these people are pretty onto it!) spends a fair amount of time talking about ending discrimination against LGBT Americans. So yay for that.
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Yes, I'm guessing that it looked a bit like this.
Or, better still...
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I don't want to rain on everyone's nice parade, but Barack Obama is sworn in as President and but 90 minutes later Wellington City is "crippled" by a power cut....
Coincidence?
Oh man, I was totally thinking that. My wife and I were standing in the living room, listening to Fisk and Klein witter on about what a sell-out Obama's going to be when, BANG, no more TV for us! We turned to each other and were, like, '__well, Obama's got all the power now!__ '.
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On the other hand, the new civil rights section of whitehouse.gov (which apparently went live at 12.01pm EST, because these people are pretty onto it!)
So where the Bush people. As soon as he was inaugurated they proceeded to delete all of the Clinton records on the whitehouse.gov website, without so much as a backup.
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WH,
Bearing in mind that Obama has promised to practise a new kind of politics and to transcend the divisions in American society, I think Warren was a good choice. Perhaps changing the tone the conversation may help to break down the polarisation and inertia that comes with the us and them mentality.
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WH,
Sorry to double post, but the BBC's Panorama has an interesting program on the challenges ahead.
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WH, I'd heard some related material on Warren in a BBC interview that included elements of the Etheridge story (including from Etheridge herself). Like others, I'm wary of evangelical Christians and their all-to-often narrow views, however if Warren's views are shifting and his involvement with Obama encourages others to be more open minded then I agree with Quinn's view that it could be beneficial all around.
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I think there's an important untold story here: bookies. There must be people who have been taking bets for a long time as to when there'd be an African American president -- who's been placing bets? At what odds? How many people have just made a bunch of money?
Similarly, how many people over the past few decades have said they'll do something "when there's a black man in the White House" and are now feeling a bit silly?
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Or, better still...
Mr Obama! Mr Obama! We can do a deal! I'll buy you a delicatessan in brushed stainless steel!
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I have a (diehard Democrat) friend who always bets a few hundred dollars on the Republican candidate to win, about a year out from the election. Thus, if his guy loses, at least he gets a cheque in the mail to comfort him. He got a new electric guitar in 2004. It was scant comfort, apparently.
In November he lost all his money and was pretty damn stoked. :)
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WH,
Paul: I guess we'll see whether the inclusive tone works once the excitement of the inauguration wears off.
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Paul: I guess we'll see whether the inclusive tone works once the excitement of the inauguration wears off.
A couple of quick thoughts:
1)Lets be real, very large parts of the nation don't want to be included in Obama's vision. And never will.
2) I loved the slaps against Bush and thought they were both timely and necessary with him sitting there...his demeanour went from smug to to visibly pissed off. Good. Many of those folks in that two miles and further out around the world remain seriously fucked off with the man and don't think a get out of jail free card is appropriate. However, I think he's already been given one, if not by history.
3) I know there is some sort of need to play to the national psyche but I still grimace at the militarism, the dishonestly about the American moral high ground in the decades before Bush and world's beacon of freedom stuff which gets relentlessly trotted out. Part of the nation's ongoing inability to adapt is the wallowing belief in this sort of bullshit. I'm old enough to get an unpleasant knot when Obama lauded Vietnam. I still am not sure he's quite worked out just what the rest of the world is so pissed off about and how far back this goes. It ain't just about waterboarding. -
And from the font of all wisdom in our fair land, The Herald,
As soon as Bush leaves office, the media will start on the new man, first praising him and then rubbishing him, if he puts one foot wrong. Bush will go up in people's esteem. Look at what happened to Kennedy and Clinton. Both were very unpopular presidents who are now seen to be OK. Like him or not, Bush had a character and was not just faceless. That will eventually make him popular. People soon forget the bad times.
OK, the guy was just a "your v ewes" writer from Switzerland but with such a flaccid grasp of the facts he could be Garth George's or Bill Ralston's replacement.
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Just goes to show I shouldn't assume things. For me, it was obvious who'd stuffed up immediately. But I'm not sure why I assumed everyone else would realise it was Roberts.
I did, but I had to hear it again to be sure of it. Obama handled it really well. Rather than just winging it, he stopped at the sentence Roberts fluffed, and calmly gave him a visual prompt.
But, any picks on the first weblog to assert that Obama isn't the real president because he wasn't sworn in properly, anyone?
I tend to like to leave the bottom-trawling to third parties. Alicublog or Instaputz will be on it, fer sure.
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1)Lets be real, very large parts of the nation don't want to be included in Obama's vision. And never will.
Those two sets of approval ratings from surveys in he past week were verging on unprecedented. He starts with enormous public goodwill. The real holdouts are down to 20% of the population.
OTOH, they do include the crazy-racists-with-weapons bloc ...
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I still am not sure he's quite worked out just what the rest of the world is so pissed off about and how far back this goes.
The alternative explanations are:
He's not talking to the rest of the world, he's talking to America, and just aware that the rest of the world is watching.
He disagrees. As would most Americans. Some things are going to change, others won't. That's OK with me, it'll be a hell of a lot better. -
Obama lauded Vietnam
I felt that he was honouring the servicepeople rather than the war. No?
Part of the nation's ongoing inability to adapt is the wallowing belief in this sort of bullshit.
True. It frustrates me too. I spend a lot of time yelling at the telly. But saying 'we actually have to act decently rather than just pretending we can do whatever we want' is leaps and bounds ahead of the last guy, surely?
I just watched a clip of Beyonce singing 'At Last' for the Obamas' first dance at the inaugural ball. Sweet, and resonant on a few levels.
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That Oath ... The Shocking Truth Revealed (from, er, the internet - i.e. someone quoting Christian Science Monitor quoting Dallas Morning News quoting some professor etc ...)
This marks the first time in history that a president was sworn in by a chief justice that he opposed [when nominated].
Reason: they're usually old dudes. Roberts is a relative newbie.
So he was getting his own back on former Senator Obama.
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Like others, I'm wary of evangelical Christians and their all-to-often narrow views, however if Warren's views are shifting and his involvement with Obama encourages others to be more open minded then I agree with Quinn's view that it could be beneficial all around.
I think Craig is quite right to say that Warren is a self-regarding douche -- but he's self-regarding douche to whom tens of millions of Americans look for inspiration. He's tied in now to the Obama project, and that's strategically huge when he's looking to make major reforms to things like energy and climate policy. It really maginalises the likes of James Dobson.
Has Obama thrown the gays under the bus? Only if he doesn't deliver on policy. If he does, then the fat guy who talks with his eyes shut won't matter.
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So where the Bush people. As soon as he was inaugurated they proceeded to delete all of the Clinton records on the whitehouse.gov website, without so much as a backup.
I wondered. Should Presidential libraries include archived versions of their administration's webpages or some version of them? Or do they do that already? Surely that is part of the record? Or is it left to the internet archive to do?
The BBC mentioned that when George W. Bush came in the Clinton staffers had removed all the "W" keys from the White House computer keyboards.
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