Congratulations, President Obama. Best of luck to you.
Now that that's out of the way... I really wanted to hit the White House web site precisely at the stroke of noon, or as soon as 44 said "So help me God." Not to be. My internet connection went down at 0900, I called my ISP at 0930 and was told the entire city was out due to a cable cut between Clovis and Lubbock. Service was restored around 1415... so I missed ALL the 'net possibilities during the ceremonies. {sigh}
It's always something. But Thank God for the Fox News Channel -- they were great.
I was thankful to be at work during that time, so I could ignore it all.
ReplyDeleteIt went down at 12:02 et - and up a few minutes later when they rolled the campaign site on top of it. Sadly, they deleted 8 years of the Bush archives with no forwarding to anything....
ReplyDeleteI was working, so I taped a couple hours of the inauguration. I watched at home, with MY WIFE, and we fast-forwarded as need be.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that bothered me beyond words was the reporting by ABC (that's what we taped, to our regret.) When Carter and Clinton were introduced, respectful dead silence from the anchors. As Bush (the elder) came out, they blabbered on about some nonsense. And they even gabbed a bit while the still-sitting President Bush was coming onto the podium.
I don't care if someone disagrees with me politically (most people do, it seems) but I expect respect for the other fellow, no matter what your personal feelings may be, and especially if you're supposed to be an objective reporter. Hideous.
It's so interesting to me that some folks didn't want to watch or listen to the Inauguration. Actually, it's kind of dismaying. Regardless of who has been elected President over the years, I've always watched the Inauguration. Always. Why wouldn't everyone? Can you really ignore the President?
ReplyDeleteKris: I, for one, think you missed an event of extreme historical significance, if not importance. But, "freedom of choice" and all that.
ReplyDeleteCynthia: I find it hard to believe that Dubya's White House web site vanished into the ether. It's out there somewhere,, if only in Google-cache. I haven't looked into this at all yet, but as I said... it's GOTTA be out there, somewhere.
Jim: I agree with you on the quality of the commentary yesterday. I surfed around a bit before settling on Fox News. The other Usual Suspects were veritable FOUNTS of gushing sentiment and fawning. That made me quite ill to watch and hear... and even Fox News wasn't immune, either.
Lori: We're on the same page. I didn't vote for The One, I don't agree with most of what he says (or said), and I disagree most of all with his basic political philosophy and political heritage... but he is STILL the president of these United States.
I feel bearing witness to the ceremony and rites of one of the world's very few peaceful political transitions (only found in the Anglosphere, really) is VERY close to duty and obligation. It is for me, anyhoo.
But, Hey! America. If you want to stay in bed all day, or light your hair on fire and run around, or simply ignore it... then that's your choice.
Just to chime in from the other side of the question, which will allow me to exercise my inherent curmudgeonliness, I have never watched an inauguration and saw no reason to watch one now. It's enough for me to know it happened.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way about politicians spending millions to celebrate and aggrandize themselves as I do about Hollywood award presentations: much self-serving ado about nothing.
- One Old Fuddy-Duddy
Missed every putrid moment of it...Thank God.
ReplyDeleteIt may not sound logical Buck, but I put the "Inauguration" into the same class as all the "Award" shows. There just has to be, must absolutely be, a far better way to kill some time. Like watching paper coming out of a copier.
ReplyDeletePomp and the lack of circumstance are better ignored than pandered to. (Hey, I split something there.)
Catmoves, do you feel this way about every Inauguration, or just yesterday's?
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