the morning after
It’s Mark Little here with a final post.
My deepest sympthies to my colleague Joe Zefran for his Inauguration night disaster (see previous post). But as a consolation, here’s what Barack and Michelle Obama looked like when they finally got around to dancing at that inaugural ball.
Now it’s the morning after the night before, the newspapers around Washington have been snapped up by souvenir hunters. In the local shop, the woman behind the counter told me I had missed the last copy of the Washington Post by 20 minutes (although she wished me ‘happy Obama day’ as I left).
In the absence of hard copy, I have been taking a little tour of online commentary, including this sceptical take from the people at Politico.
For my money, the sharpest observer of Obama’s campaign has been former presidential speechwriter peggy noonan. This is her take on yesterday’s speech.
And here’s a final verdict from John Heilemann writing in the New York magazine website
‘His speech yesterday may not have been his prettiest or most intoxicating. But it may wind up serving a higher, more noble purpose: contributing to a climate where it’s possible to get shit done.‘
Nuff said.
Barack Obama owes me $250
Here we were, seven of us all dressed up for the Neighborhood Ball, one of the ones that Barack Obama was attending. I had bought 8 tickets 5 days ago from the official Presidential Inaugural Committee website. The email confirmation was vague as to where to collect the tickets. Slightly concerned I rang the only number in the email 2 days ago and left a message (the only option). Never heard back. However we counted on the time-tested will call method to work. We spent hundreds on our outfits and haircuts – and arrived at the Washington Convention Center full of excitement.
The thick-necked (and sometimes just plain thick) law enforcement personnel told us at 10th and L St that will call was on the other side of the gigantic structure. I ran around so I could get the tickets before Barack Obama came and went. On the other side, sub zero temperatures starting to tingle my extremities, I and dozens of other well-dressed people clutching email confirmations were told there was no will call and that we would not get in.
I went through my paltry rolodex of peripheral people in Democratic politics and the media elite. No dice. I even rang the Washington Post city desk and got a hold of a reporter named Ruben. He’s on the case for us.
So now we’re sitting in the only restaurant near the convention center, a steak and seafood place that seems to have run out of most vegetables much to the chagrin of the two vegetarians in our party. Making the best of a crappy situation.
If this is now the Obama Administration is going to be run, America is in trouble.
Tower of Power
Sorry for the lack of live blogging during the event. As we were warned, mobile access was non-existent during the speech. Let’s hope cell towers on the Mall is on President Obama’s infrastructure project list.
The crowd was electric and most of us forgot how cold it was during the ceremony.
I feel bad for poet Elizabeth Alexander and Rev Joseph Lowery for most of the crowd cleared out immediately after the President’s speech.
After tonight’s parties, there is a sense that folks are ready to get down to the business at hand – as set out during Obama’s speech.
quick judgement
Just off air here on the rooftop of the Canadian Embassy in Washington. My indelible memory of this inauguration day will be the sound coming in waves from the Capitol building, first the individual phrases from the speeches, followed by a cheer which spread like a Mexican wave the length of the the National Mall, and then the after-shocks of sound bouncing off the buildings all around the American capital. I will remember Obama’s speech, his warning that the day ‘of childish things’ was over. I am not sure this will be judged a great inaugural speech. Perhaps it was too ambitious in the ground it sought to cover. But I heard responsibility, maturity, discipline, seriousness in that speech. Not bad, to begin with.
hope and fear
‘I was there, where you were you. What size are you, Ma’am’
The T-shirt sellers pitch drifts across the mass of the people creeping forward on D Street. It’s too cold for t-shirts. The sun has broken through the scrappy layer of cloud above Washington but the millions pushing towards the National Mall have taken the advice to layer up and keep warm. The crowd has closed in around me and for a moment I can sense fear rising from the parents in front of me. ‘Stay close dear,’ a woman says to her daughter in a high-pitch. I break away from the crowd only to see a policeman on all fours trying to resuscitate a man lying on his back by the side of the road. People stream by, unaware of the small, tragic drama being acted out beside them. Washington is a city of sirens today, and snipers on roofs, and National Guardsmen on street corners. This will sound disconcerting. On this day of joy and new beginnings and expectation and hope. But perhaps it is the reality-check we need. Americans are not naive. Their lives are full of fear and uncertainty. It is all around them. That is why this moment means the world to the millions churning forward all around me. To really appreciate the hope and joy they feel today you also have to understand the challenges all around them.
Mall of America
Greetings from the National Mall where those not lucky enough to get official tickets (and more importantly, chairs) will witness this historic event.
It is expected to hold the entire population of Ireland. Fortunately America’s reputation to build things big means the area of Croker several times over gives everyone some elbow room. Although on a day like today, being squeezed together as a huddled mass would be an appealing idea.
Mall of America
Greetings from the National Mall where those not lucky enough to get official tickets (and more importantly, chairs) will witness this historic event.
It is expected to hold the entire population of Ireland. Fortunately America’s reputation to build things big means the area of Croker several times over gives everyone some elbow room. Although on a day like today, being squeezed together as a huddled mass would be an appealing idea.
7 layer brrrrr-ito
Cold and crisp would be an understatement. The sun is shining, but it’s so cold icicles of snot can form on one’s nose.
Standard Inauguration outfit:
-Leggings, tights, and/or bicycle trousers
-At least 2 pairs of socks
-Thick boots or shoes
-3-4 tops, jumpers, and/or hoodies
-Heavy winter coat in the wardrobe
-Gloves
-Hat
-Ear muffs
-Scarf (preferably without the PLO design as they are touchy about that sort of thing here)
-Thoughts of warm places like the Algarve, Greek Islands or Washington in the summertime
-Obama badges, hats, earrings etc
echoes of a dark past
I thought it was worth posting the opening of a remarkable piece by Francis Klines in this morning’s New York Times.
There are unsettling ghosts of America past all about the National Mall. Hundreds of thousands of people will gather there Tuesday for the inauguration of the nation’s first African-American president. Three blocks from where Barack Obama takes the oath, there was once the Saint Charles Hotel, a popular accommodation on Pennsylvania Avenue before emancipation ruined business for slave traders. It proudly advertised that down below its first-rate restaurant, guests could avail themselves of six, 30-foot-long arched slave cells, replete with wall rings and shackles. The management promised: “In case of escape, full value for the Negro will be paid.”
A few blocks from there was the notorious Yellow House, a three-story brick slave market where trader William Williams prospered enough to purchase two slave ships of his own. Solomon Northrup, a free man from New York who was kidnapped into slavery, passed through on the block and eventually wrote a memoir. He recalled how “the voices of patriotic representatives boasting of freedom and equality,” in the nearby Capitol almost commingled with “the rattling of the poor slave’s chains.”
The eve of the Obama era
On Monday evening, I walked up the National Mall in the fading light of the last day of the Bush era. Beyond the black fencing, portaloos and jumbotron screens was an illuminated platform in front of the Capitol Dome. Plastic sheets covered the arch through which Obama walk through in the minutes before his swearing-in. The bullet-proof glass around the podium caught the bright artificial glow of twin floodlights. The rows of plastic chairs sat empty directly in front of the stage. But thousands of ordinary Americans milled about the grass behind them, guests at some democratic garden party. Mothers played touch football with their sons. Couples huddled up intimately in the cold. Four young black men of considerable size stood motionless staring at the Capitol dome. The tallest among them sucked contentedly on a fat cigar. Free at last. Almost.
What we still don’t know about Obama
It may seem like a strange thing to say about the most famous living person in the world, but I still feel we don’t really know what makes Obama tick. Such is the speed of his political ascent that few people have navigated the complicated cross-currents that flow through his life. That’s why it is such good news that one of the best political writers of his generation has started work on a biography of Obama. David Maraniss of the Washington Post wrote the defining biography of Bill Clinton, First in his Class. This morning, he published the first first instalment of his Obama opus. It’s worth reading twice. That good.
The skeptic’s guide to the Inauguration
I’ve been looking for a perspective on the inauguration from a smart conservatives here in Washington (which I am sure my liberal friends will tell me is a contradiction in terms). I got it from Kevin Madden, who was communications chief for republican presidential contender Mitt Romney and is one of the rising stars in the world of Washington political consultants. He cautions against sky-high expectations of Obama, saying ‘his honeymoon ends on January 21st’. He reckons Democrats in congress could turn out to be Obama’s biggest problem, pushing him to the left, when Obama wants to be in the political centre, and trying to reassert their political authority after their years in the political wilderness of the Bush era. Madden acknowledges that Obama really does have momentum, and will capitalise on the surge in public acclaim. But when I asked him to respond to those in Ireland who might see Obama as a saviour, he said: “As my father, who was born in Galway, used to tell me when I was a child: every journey starts with a single step and Obama hasn’t even taken the first step.’
You can see Kevin’s full interview on Prime Time tomorrow night.
Bono on Obama
bono and prime time on sunday morning
We interviewed Bono for Prime Time just before he left to play at the Lincoln memorial in Washington on Sunday. You can see the full interview tomorrow night on the show but for now, I can tell you the U2 front-man used a great word to describe Barack Obama’s biggest virtue: ‘Measuredness’.
A different country
Strolling through Capitol Hill this morning, I realise how much my favourite parts of America have changed in recent years. Even Washington, my old hometown, has been gentrified and civilised to an extent that really takes me by surprise. The old racially, charged neighbourhoods around the Capitol building seem less divided, less dangerous, more laid-back. It’s not that old problems have been solved, it’s more than new potential futures are on offer. Maybe those of us who thought we understood the United States should take some time to re-acquaint ourselves with it. To that end, take a look at my travel guide to the United States, published in yesterday’s sunday tribune.
snipers at work
I haven’t actually bought into all the scare stories about the security preparations for the Inauguration. Maybe it’s that I have learned to live with the institutionalised paranoia that goes with official events in Washington. But I was a little shaken by this story from the CNN website
he hasn’t gone away, you know
If you thought we saw the last of Reverend Jeremiah Wright during the presidential election campaign, think again. Obama’s former preacher is here in Washington and he’s still mad as hell, if this piece in the washington post is anything to go by
The speech
Just in case you missed Obama’s speech at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday ….
Yes Pecan
Obama talks about a package to stimulate the US economy. Well, it’s already a reality. A lot of people are making a lot of money here in Washington from Obamania. On every street corner someone hawking a piece of memorabilia – from Obama action figures to Obama baby bibs to Obama coffee mugs. Even America’s biggest businesses are getting in on the act, desperately trying to associate themselves with the spirit of change running through this country (Ben and Jerry’s has apparently come up a new ice-cream flavour – Yes Pecan). For fear of becoming a corporate shill, check out the new pepsi campaign.
Buzz but no bedlam
Rumours of chaos descending on Washington have been greatly exagerrated – so far
The Joshua Generation
This is Mark Little checking in from Washington. I’ve spent the past two days assembling a series of profiles for Tuesday night’s Prime Time programme. The people we have met range from the sceptics to the true believers. This morning, we went over to the People’s Inaugural Prayer Breakfast at a downtown hotel where black preachers competed with each other to invoke the names of Martin Luther King and Barack Obama as many times as humanly possible in the same sentence. Dr King was Moses, taken from his people within sight of the Promised Land. Obama was Joshua, finally leading the chosen people into the land of milk and honey. ‘But while he is divinely guided,’ one pastor told me, ‘he is no messiah.’ And yet there was a profound sense of deliverance among the hundreds of African-American church leaders gathered in the ballroom of the Grand Hyatt hotel. There was a sense of historical validation for those old enough to have lived through the heyday of the civil rights movement and from the younger men and women, you got a sense of almost unbearable anticipation. ‘This is our time,’ said one young preacher. ‘We are doing the new thing,’ said another, provoking scattered ‘amens’ and ‘say it so’ from the hall. If there was any doubt amid the joy, it came when a reverend called on the congregation to pray for President Obama’s safety: ‘Let the secret service be joined by the angelic service in protecting our president.
cold and crisp
Just landed at dulles. Softest touchdown I’ve felt in years. Not like those fast and bumpy ryanair landings.
It’s cold (-9) and crisp (overcast & dry). This will be the weather 4 million people will stand in for 5+ hours just to see Obama on a giant screen.
Air Obama
A few of the small, scaled-back RTE crew are at Dublin airport ready to board aer lingus flight 119 to Washington. Today it’s the (un)official airline of the 2009 US Inauguration.
One passenger is sporting an Obama T-shirt.
Ciara Lynch from Castleblayney is going to Washington at the invitation of Obama to take part in a young people’s parliament.
There’s a buzz on the plane unlike most I’ve been on. Maybe it’s the knowledge that a lot of people on this flight are going to Washington for a common purpose even if they don’t know each other.
More from the other side of the pond.
