Great picture of the Inauguration

Check this out. You can pan and zoom to get real close to the action.

(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)

Rosa Brooks on The Speech

Rosa Brooks writes what is, so far, my favorite analysis of Obama's Inaugural Address. I'm still digesting it, and I haven't had a chance to watch it again. For now, here's Ms. Brooks. I'm quoting her at length.

True, Obama referred only elliptically to his status as our first black president. He didn't talk about black people or white people. He did something simpler. He talked about "us."

This is what gave Obama's speech its power: His generous vision of an America that includes all of us, belongs to all of us, shapes and is shaped by all of us.

Speaking of the "men and women ... who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom," Obama repeated the refrain: "For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn."

"For us." With these small words, Obama invited us all to claim a past full of contradictions that can neither be resolved nor disowned but only accepted as part of that "patchwork heritage" that shapes and can strengthen us all.

I'm still getting used to having permission to dream.

Let's try this oath one more time

Yesterday, as I was hearing about the mild to-do about how John Roberts slightly botched the oath of office, I was vaguely wondering if he and Obama were going to perform the oath again. Why not, it's easy. Guess what, they actually did it.

The Speech

Barack Obama gave his (hopefully first) Inaugural address today. I'm writing that as a very basic declarative sentence because I'm having fun today just writing down simple facts about the fact that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States of America. Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic broke it down line by line.

The NY Times invited five speechwriters, Democrats and Republicans, to give their reactions. They were mostly positive, although Gordon Stewart, speechwriter for Carter, wanted more specifics. Still, he liked the core principle:

Never have I known of one to so aggressively seize the center and attempt to enlarge it to the very boundaries of the nation.

Mary Kate Cary, who wrote for George H. W. Bush (and seems to be admitting that was a challenge), says that

Overall, it was a good speech that got better as it went.

Jeff Shesol, a Clintonite, nails my feelings:

It was not the most inspirational speech that Barack Obama has ever given, but it’s surely the most purposeful. He long ago proved that he could make people weep. Today he seemed determined to make them think and, more important, to act.

William Gavin, who wrote for Nixon (Safire wasn't available?) makes a nice point about form and context:

In any major speech there is an eloquence of words and an eloquence of setting (for example, Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg). . . But the setting — the first African-American standing there in the bright winter sunshine as our new president — had an eloquence all its own.

He then adds a nice grace note:

Anyhow, God bless him and his family, and I hope he is a great president.

Clark S. Judge (great name), a Reagan speechwriter, was also highly complimentary:

President Barack Obama delivered a deeply American inaugural address . . . It was a marvelous address.

I'm going to take some time to digest it, and write about it in detail later. But my first reaction was that it was very good.

Justification to party

Michelle Cottle, at TNR, writes about the cost of the Inaugural. Apparently some conservatives were grumbling about the cost. These people have no shame. The people who gave tax cuts to the rich are whining about a party for the whole country? Cottle completely disagrees with them. Fortunately, I don't even have to worry about whether or not I disagree with them - for the moment, I can simply ignore them.

A short history of a long moment

Is it January 20th yet? No, we aren't even halfway there. Why does it take so long? Donald Ritchie provides some background. Bottom line: it used to be a lot worse.