Hail to the Chief

Welcome to the first day of the new America. Like it or not, like Obama or not, we are indubitably on a different track now than we were until 12:02pm. Somewhere, a few miles away from the lounge in which I'm writing this column, Barack Hussein Obama is dancing the night away accompanied by his wife, his children, the Presidential Protective Detail, and the Army captain who carries the nuclear "football." The apocryphal 3 am phone call, the launch codes, the bifurcated land war, the nebulous and misnomered "Global War on Terror," the climate crisis, the financial crisis, and the leadership of the free world are his and his alone now. As Truman would have it, the buck stops there. The fictional "Office of the President-Elect" has mercifully ceased its awkward and overshadowing coexistence with the constitutionally-approved office of the singularly disengaged 43rd President of the United States. In his own words, "that we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood." That, in many ways, was the underlying message woven througout Obama's inaugural address (more on that below), and it must not be forgotten. That will be especially true in the coming weeks as Obama and the presidency try each other on for size and some of the hysteria of the campaign settles down as these crises are addressed. They will not all be solved, and they certainly will not be solved quickly, but Obama can now begin his long-anticipated efforts at finding solutions. But enough sobriety--there will be plenty of time for that later and I know what you are all looking for is the view from the Mall. Here it is:

The Experience

For a fairly short ceremony--only about an hour--there was a lot to digest and to a certain extent I'm still working on that. My overwhelming impression is best expressed in Obama's own words from Grant Park: "change has come to America." I can't reinforce that enough. The overall level of euphoria--at least in the form of citywide displays of raw human emotion--was probably higher on election night than it was today, but the sense of hope and relief were and are palpable. People on the Mall sang "Na na, hey hey, goodbye" and booed as President Bush was introduced, which doesn't happen to every President on his way out. Obama enters office with a 78% approval rating--the highest ever for an incoming President. His approval rating with the crowd was more like 150%. The most meaningful part of the day, and the part that is hardest to express, is what it was like to gather with 5,000,000 like-minded people from across the country and the globe to celebrate this historic event. The city has been packed to the gills this week, yet there has been a pervading sense of hope and goodwill; a feeling that has manifested itself in extremely personable and well-behaved crowds. Despite intense cold, claustrophobia, and the many logistical snafus of the weekend, people have overall been very controlled and polite to one another. The other fascinating side of this is that you can be pretty well assured that anyone you meet on the street shares this excitement, which has meant lots of spontaneous and joyous conversations with people from all over. Not only do people look each other in the eye and compulsively grin on the streets (not exactly routine here), but everyone asks everyone else "Hey, where are you from? Aren't you excited? It's a great day for America," etc.

America's great day, in my experience, went something like this:

6:20 am--roll out of bed an hour later than I'd planned, throw on a half-dozen layers and work boots and stuff an energy bar, an apple, and my camera into my pockets while cussing myself out for not hearing my alarm.

6:30 am--finally get everything on the right way (close enough, anyway) and beat feet out of the dorm. Begin competing for cell bandwidth with a few million other early risers as I try to keep tabs on friends about a mile ahead of me. Start running.

7:15 am--arrive at the Mall, stop running. Keep sweating, though, which gets cold in a big hurry. Blisters from running 3 miles in work boots start making themselves known. Try the phone a dozen times before getting through and beginning a half-hour odyssey through the crowd, trying to find the one dark-colored glove held aloft on a stick belonging to my friends out of a few hundred of the damn things. All the while, it turns out I'm facing east and they're facing west, with both of us claiming to be on the left side of the mall. They mean south, I mean north. Yikes.

7:45 am--Find friends, crush a few more people to get there. This particular scribe does not move through the crowds like a fish through water; crushees, as noted above, keep up the good mood of the crowd and are relatively understanding and cooperative.

8:00-11:30 am--watch Sunday's concert for the 3rd time on the big screens. Freeze, wish for food or, better, coffee. Nothing doing. Sweat and blisters do their thing. Nose runs like faucet. Remember that the second-best thing about watching Giants football games in the late season, behind seeing them lose, is watching coach Tom Coughlin's face cycle through his team's colors on the sideline--white to red to blue. My face does a passable impression. [It's still a little cooked.]

11:30 am-12:45 pm--watch inaugural ceremony. Forget cold and hunger (mostly) long enough to cheer, chant, flag-wave, and celebrate with 5,000,000 other Barackolytes.

12:45-1:30 pm--get borne towards exits with huge crowd. Turns out there are only 2 of them, each wide enough for about 1.5 people at a time, and the National Guard can't quite decide which exit they want each stream of people to make for, and they sure as hell can't coordinate with the agents of the other 3 dozen uniformed security forces on duty. Push through crowd to north, get turned around and push back through the same 2 blocks' worth of people we just came through, trample the front lawn of some federal agency, and finally squeeze out between 2 jersey barriers, friends nowhere in sight.

1:45 pm--start walking 3 miles back. Cold, hungry, tired, frustrated; simultaneously going over the historic event I just witnessed and basking in the glow.

2:00 pm--afterglow not warm enough. Must find coffee. Hustle back to M street, backtrack a block and duck into Le Pain Quotidien for a pot of coffee, a cup of soup, and a curry chicken tartine. Best $25 spent in a long time.

3:15 pm--back on campus to shower, change, and wait for brain and fingers to start functioning enough to reflect properly and write about the day. [It takes 4 hours.]

The Analysis

Once it got underway (not a moment too soon!), the ceremony was quite powerful. Aretha Franklin sang; Itzhak Perlman, Yo Yo Ma, and 2 others played a special John Williams composition; the Marine Corps band got the blood flowing with some Souza marches; the oaths were administered; and the speech was given. It was interesting to see the last moments of the Bush Presidency--the President looked relaxed and happy, Cheney was rolled out onto the stage in a wheelchair (that drew a reaction, believe me), and neither of them could get out of the way fast enough for the crowd's taste.

The invocation was delivered by the Rev. Rick Warren, a controversial and much-discussed choice that I felt worked out pretty well in the end. Now, I don't agree with Warren on a lot of issues, not least his right-wing brand of evangelism, but I did feel he was a powerful speaker and his invocation was well-delivered, pertinent, and moving. Rev. Warren, remember, hosted the controversial, consecutive non-debate event with Obama and McCain at his Saddleback church late in the campaign that actually delivered some of the better views of both candidates even though they were interviewed successively and did not debate face-to-face.

Senator Biden took the oath from Justice Breyer, and it went without a hitch. As he sat down, I remarked to a group standing next to me that that oath was arguably the more important of the two--exorcising Dick Cheney, in my humble opinion, in itself makes for a great day for America.

Senator Obama took his oath from Chief Justice Roberts, who flubbed it and made Obama look awkward in so doing. More on this later, too, but it was an awkward enough moment that it was one of the first things people talked about afterwards.

Finally, we heard the magical words "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States" and the 44th chief executive stepped to the podium to deliver his much-anticipated speech. (If you missed it or want to consult it, here it is.) Frankly, I thought it was a very good speech and that it addressed the aforementioned challenges forthrightly and constructively, but it was not as transcendent as I had thought it would be. The Denver speech was very good and the Grant Park speech was excellent, but I felt this one lacked some of the rhetorical oomph the country has come to expect from him. Then again, I'll take a page out of the mainstream liberal media's playbook and issue him a pass--actually assuming the mantle of power has to be a much more trying circumstance under which to speak than accepting a nomination or an election. We all know he can orate and my guess is that he will be back in the saddle full swing by the State of the Union. There were some notable lines, though I'm not sure any will be kept on the tips of American tongues for generations as some of Lincoln's and Kennedy's gems are. A few people started walking out during the speech (trying to beat the crowd, I can only assume, but I was still surprised) and almost everyone was moving before Obama even reached his seat after speaking. There was plenty of enthusiastic and heartfelt cheering at all the right moments, but I didn't see anyone who looked truly enraptured and the speech was not a universal conversation-starter after the ceremony.

Factoid of the Day That May Interest Only Me

Sure enough, Obama chose to be sworn in on the Lincoln Bible. Presidents can choose any text they like on which to swear, and most choose a Bible used by a famous predecessor whom they wish to emulate. Lincoln has been the most obvious and most referenced Presidential precedent for Obama, but it's still interesting to note that he assumed the popular perception through that gesture.

Quote of the Day I

"The challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America--they will be met."

--Barack Obama, in his inaugural address. A perfect example of the good but reality-constrained oratory of the speech. The country is ready for change and happy to party for a day, but the financial crisis is likely to appear on most front pages tomorrow and be back above the fold by week's end. America is frightened and looking for pragmatism at least as much as hope, and that's exactly what we got in this address.

Quote of the Day II

"Give to our new President, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the Cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders. ...We now commit our new President and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into Your loving care."

--Pastor Rick Warren, in his invocation. Amen to all of that.

Stat of the Day I

3 of 3

Number of the historical figures with whom Obama is most often compared (Lincoln, King, and Kennedy) who were assassinated. As Pastor Warren alluded to above, Obama's personal safety is a huge concern. Frankly, it's a not-so-small miracle that the biggest threat to anyone's physical well-being at this inauguration was the cold. If ever the country needed to pray for its President, now would be a good time. I fervently hope that Obama can combine all of the best attributes of these iconic figures and, along with his family, retire to a long and healthy life of doing whatever makes him happy whenever his time as President is up.

Stat of the Day II

78%

As mentioned, the highest approval rating of an incoming President--Obama--in history (if Gallup had existed in 1789, this might even rival Washington's). Needless to say, this is roughly 2.5 times Bush's approval rating on leaving.

Enjoyable/Aggravating Travel Note of the Day I

Like I said, I woke up an hour late. Don't ask me why or how--I was just zonked, apparently. Embarassing enough on its own, extra embarassing because I have such a reputation among my friends for being a highly disciplined early riser, and a healthy dose of crow-eating for me after talking a huge game about jumping out of bed to roust everybody else last night. Pride wenteth before the fall, but luckily it didn't lead to anything more serious than the Quest for the Dark Blue Glove narrated above.

Enjoyable/Aggravating Travel Note of the Day II

I touched on this earlier as well, but egress from the Mall was really poorly handled. Not only was it frustrating and apparently inexplicable, but it was very dangerous. I fully understand the security concerns involved, but I knew beforehand that I wouldn't be able to go out of the Mall to the north since Pennsylvania Ave. was blocked off for the parade. Everyone else knew it too, so we were all moving south and/or west, only to run into an alphabet soup of federal and local law enforcers all trying to enforce their own visions of pedestrian traffic flow and batting the crowd from north to south several times before anyone could cross one street west to the Washington monument and the open space that the 3,000,000 of us trying to go that way so desperately wanted. In addition to the usual risks to person and property this posed by needlessly risking stampede, I (of course) immediately thought of the emergency implications: had there been an incident of any size during the ceremony, the ensuing pandemonium and desperated crush for the exits would have killed two-thirds of the people on the Mall. The city really did a shoddy job in preparing for the crowds even after initially overestimating how many would be there. Everyone knew (or should have) that the 5,000,000 on the Mall would want to scram as soon as Obama finished speaking (we did) and found a better way to plan for that.

Ten Things I Think I Think

1. I think this is what I liked about Obama's address:
a) it might not have been flashy, but pragmatism was called for and delivered. Hope won him the election, reassurance is going to keep the country on his side.
b) it covered a wide range of historical ground, with liberal allusion to Washington, the Revolution, and the Founders. An important message from the man we all expect to get back to working within the parameters of the Constitution he just solemnly swore to "uphold, protect, and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic," rather than fighting them as neeless stricture as his predecessor did.
c) partway through, Obama mentioned that "We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things." I couldn't agree more. If his Presidency comes to serve as a definite turn towards a new era of American maturity--and I really believe that it could--that would be an amazing legacy. We've been through our infancy, youth, and belligerent/hormonal teenage years, and it's about time we become a stronger, wiser adult.

2. I think this is what I didn't like about the speech:
a) I still think it could have been a bettter and more enduring rhetorical feat. My expectations, as with most peoples' about most things Obama, were unrealistically high. Still, I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed.
b) I was really hoping for a defining line (a la "Ask not what your country can do for you...").

3. I think whatever oath John Roberts administered to Barack Obama was legally binding...I think. Not only was it markedly different from the (correct) one sworn by Joe Biden, but the Roberts's stumbling was a glaring stumble that marred the inauguration of a man known for his speaking abilities. Many people I talked to afterwards thought that Obama was the one who stumbled, but it was actually Roberts who dropped the ball: he inverted the phrasing of the oath and then awkwardly paused, at which point Obama began dubiously to recite Roberts's delivery, only to have Roberts break back in with the right words in the right order, forcing Obama to back up and try again himself. The oath is stipulated in the Constitution and most Americans can recite it reasonably well from memory. Coming from the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, this looked downright unprofessional.

4. I think, for those of you that might have missed it, Michiko Kakutani's profile on Obama as a reader and a thinker from yesterday's New York Times, is worth your while. The article details how Obama's relationship with words has evolved over time and shaped him as a person and a politician. It also covers how his reading material and style differ from Bush's (yes, Leftie-Loosies, your 43rd President was actually quite a reader, and not of picture books, either) as well as how what Obama reads shapes his thinking. Finally, it provides a sample listing of the books Obama holds most dear.

5. I think, speaking of Obama and wordsmithing, that his choice for the inaugural poet was a flop. Even as I was leaving the Mall during her reading, I did listen to it and I didn't think it made any sense. The reading was not very well performed, either. No one else I've talked to thought it was much good, either.

6. I think, on the other hand, that the benediction was quite good. It has already stirred up some racism controversy (what doesn't?), but it was well-delivered and had what I thought were a healthy number of Civil Rights references. Catch it on YouTube if you're so inclined.

7. I think the first hundred days of this Presidency are going to really set the tone. I know I'll be eagerly watching (and likely reporting/opining), and I sincerely hope that Obama gets off to a good start and is able to maintain or, preferably, gain momentum from there.

8. I think Obama is going to have to deal with the handling of the aftermath of Bush's administration firmly and in a hurry. Many people are making good arguments for a wholehearted attempt to thoroughly lance all the boils (Guantanamo, the CIA, Blackwater, who knows what else); some are making very good arguments to move on. Personally, my dream scenario would be that of a post-Watergate-style non-action on Obama's part with a subsequent and public airing of the mountains of dirty laundry we all think we know is out there by Bush himself. Pardoning Nixon seemed inexplicable and cost Ford any chance of winning in an election, but Ford never the less knew that what the country really needed above all was to pick itself up and move forward rather than wallowing in the mire of Nixon any longer. The same goes for Bush, though I can only hope that Bush would eventually provide some kind of airing out/apology at some point. We have plenty of very real problems right now and the Bush administration is already a sunk cost; energy spent in muckraking and/or self-flagellation about yesterday is energy not directed towards solving today's and tomorrow's problems.

9. I think--and this is deeply tied to the above point--that I really liked the broad focus on and mention of "moral courage" and roughly synonomous terms in the inauguration today. Pastor Warren used such language on several instances in his invocation, Obama touched on it many times in a variety of ways in his address, and it came up a bit in the poem and benediction as well. Moral courage is sorely lacking in the halls of power in all branches of government these days, civil and military, with a pervasion instead of groupthink, head-in-cement syndrome, cover-my-ass, reactionary and institutionalized silence in and among various departments and between the government and the people. The press and the public need not and should not know everything, but neither is the enemy. The more moral courage shown by an administration, the easier it is for the public to trust it to consistently make the right calls even in the small and invisible things, and the more the public trusts the administration the less antagonistic the press will feel it has to be in its efforts to inform. Moral courage starts at the top, and if Obama could create and institutionalize a value on intelligence and moral courage in government service, that, too, would be a worthy legacy, whilst likely having the corollary benefit of "maturing" the country as I alluded to earlier.

10. I think these are my non-inaugural thoughts of the day:
a) Go see "Frost/Nixon." I mean it. Great film, well-acted, and highly pertinent.
b) After you watch it, re-read no. 8 (and then post on the blog!!).
c) Steelers-Cardinals?! Ummmm...go Steelers?
d) Don't fast-track Kurt Warner's sainthood just yet. Yes, the man's having a career year...one of three years in which he's started every game over the ten years he's played. Let's see what happens with the Super Bowl first, then see what happens next year.
e) Anybody else really want another try at Super Bowl XLII? Pioli to KC, McDaniels to Denver, Brady in rehab, everybody else hurting/retiring, Rex Ryan the new HC of the NYJ, Cassell in limbo... Good luck Patriots! You'll need it! (You could start by drafting another defensive rookie of the year...)
f) Really, truly, I'm serious about this: I want feedback about and/or on this blog. Love it? Hate it? Convenient? Inconvenient? Topics you want to hear about? New name?! Educators: any writing tips? I don't expect this to chew up huge chunks of your time or anything, but the more you can take 2 minutes to write a question or comment, the better this thing can be and the more fun it can be for everybody...which has always been the whole point anyway!
g) Last but not least, many thanks to everybody for your readership and the very positive responses I've gotten over the course of the last 4 or 5 months to what I've been putting out. I like writing this and it's a real treat to know how much you all like reading it. Thanks again and enjoy!

We Are One Concert 1/18/09

The first official post of the new blog! It's going to be pretty quick, but here we go. I'll be back in force tomorrow...

As long as I'm counting this entire four-day weekend as basically one big national birthday party for me, which I am--though I'll cede the limelight to one Barack H. Obama for part of tomorrow--yesterday was one of the best birthday presents I've ever received. The inaugural committee put on a two-hour concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that featured most of the big names in entertainment from the past thirty years or so, and culminated with addresses from Biden and Obama themselves. In other words, I just saw a whole planetarium's worth of stars, the vice-president-elect and president-elect of the United States, and was seen on HBO and the front page of this morning's New York Times, all in the space of the last twenty-four hours. For those of you that try to find me on HBO or the Times, I'm a bit hard to spot--approximately 200,395th from left in the Times, seen fleetingly on TV--but I'm there none the less.

As far as the aforementioned planetarium goes, here is a sample listing as I recall it:

Entertainment: Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, Jack Black, Tiger Woods, George Lopez, Steve Carell, Tom Hanks, Samuel L. Jackson, Forrest Whittaker, and two bald eagles from the National Zoo.

Music: Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Usher, Shakira, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Josh Groban, Renee Fleming and the U.S. Naval Academy Glee Club, will.i.am, Sheryl Crow, John Mellencamp, Garth Brooks, Jon Bon Jovi, U2, Beyonce, and Pete Seeger.

And that's just a partial list of all the acts we got to see in two hours. We were close enough that I could actually see all of the performers (including Obama and Biden), albeit as tiny little specks. Springsteen was good, Mellencamp was great, U2 was fantastic, and Garth brought the house down with an abbreviated "American Pie," "Shout," and his own "We Shall Be Free." All the performers either covered famous songs having to do with solidarity/love/peace/Americana/etc. or played their own songs on the same topics. Many appeared together with one another (Sheryl Crow, will.i.am and Herbie Hancock on "One Love," and so forth) and most only got one song. Garth got about 2.5 (only the highlights from the 8-minute "American Pie") and U2 got two ("Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "City of Blinding Lights"). All in all, a ticket that would have been about a zillion dollars had they actually charged to see all those people. As I mentioned to my friends at the concert, this weekend alone is worth at least my second semester tuition if not the whole year's. At the end of the concert, Springsteen came back onstage and then introduced Pete Seeger to lead the crowd in "This Land is Your Land." That performance was priceless, and thanks to the new blog format you all can watch it here. The other highlight you have to see is Jamie Foxx doing a spot-on impression of Obama's speech in Grant Park on election night (sorry the video's not that great--that's one thing I can't control).

All in all, a wonderful way to spend the second day of my nineteenth year (along with 400,000 other people). From a musical standpoint (longer set, real fans who know the words and sing along, etc.), I've seen better concerts, but I've never seen anything that had quite the atmosphere of yesterday's extravaganza. Part of it was the gathering of people from all over the country to celebrate the inauguration, part of it was the huge collection of celebrities, and part of it was the pure novelty and joy of singing and head-bobbing (no joke) along with the man who will become the 44th President of the United States tomorrow at noon. Whatever you might have thought or continue to think about Obama vs. McCain, I would say that this weekend would have been meaningful but not nearly as fun had McCain won. Not that the concert necessarily wouldn't have happened, but the city has really bent over backwards to make this weekend an experience and I can't help but think it's partially due to Obama's election. So, to all of you who were kind enough to vote for Obama, thanks for a hell of a birthday present!

That's it for now, but I thought you would all enjoy a little vicarious taste of what it's like to be here right now. As mentioned above, I'll be back at full strength tomorrow with all kinds of euphoric things I think and quotes of the day and predictions and reactions and....

In honor of SI's Peter King, whose "10 Things I Think I Think" column feature inspired me to get started on firing off all the things I've thought I've thought over the past year, I'll once again shamelessly loot his column from this morning and give you one of his quotes of the week:

"Barack Obama is selling hope, and I'm buying."
--Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin [I'd add that, as a 36-year-old black man, Tomlin is already the youngest head coach to get his team to the Super Bowl and stands a good chance of becoming the youngest to win it, as well as the second black head coach to win it. Finally, it was Tomlin's Steelers who came to town and beat the Redskins on election weekend, a traditional sign that the incumbent party will lose the White House. Coincidence? Happenstance? You tell me...)

Once again, please do react to this via comment and/or email. To a certain extent, it's your column--take some ownership and help me make it better. The feedback you send, the better it will get and the faster that will happen. As my other influence Rick Reilly says, "Love the column, hate the column, got a better idea?" Pass it along s'il vous plait...

Welcome Aboard!

New year, new administration--time for a new look for the rather obnoxiously (and hopefully temporarily) titled "Thoughts of Steele." This thing needs a new name in the worst way but I had to put something on it and that was the best I could do off the cuff. Any and all name submissions greatly appreciated; you'll know you won if your idea shows up on the homepage!

For the record, I didn't think I was going to make the switch to blogging, either. It was indeed easy to set up, however, and I really think it will allow both me and all of you more flexibility in writing and disseminating all the things I think I think. I can work piecemeal, you can read everything at your leisure and comment on it directly on the blog (and thus converse with each other) if you so choose, and it is enabled (I think!) so that you can share specific posts with your friends via email.

As far as my goals in making the switch--beyond making this more user-friendly for everybody--I am most interested in broadening the conversation and trying to enable more and easier response to my thoughts. I'm not planning on advertising talking this thing up too much, but you are free to share it with whomever you feel might be interested in what's here. I really enjoy writing this and it sounds like most of you enjoy reading it and some of you forward my emails to friends or print them out. Keep it up. Email specific posts to people, send them the link to the entire thing at let them peruse at will, it's up to you. I will try to send email reminders when I post at least to start with, but I'm really trying to move in the direction of making this my primary means of publishing opinion (daily life will still be sent by email), so get in the habit of checking occasionally. I'll post when I have time and material (read: unpredictably), and I'll try to upload the text of emails from earlier in the year at some point so you can have access to all of my writings.

End of sermon. I sincerely hope you enjoy this new format and that it fulfills my goals of making it easier for everybody to get involved. I always like hearing from you all with responses, suggestions, and whatever else is on your minds. Post to the blog if you want to get into the conversation with everybody (I hope you do!), email me if that's easier or you have something specific. Especially early on, the more comments you're willing to send me, the better this will be and the more we can all enjoy it. Don't forget new title submissions!