The Peaceful Transfer of Power

I love the pomp and ceremony of an inauguration.  Still, happy to be watching from my warm living room.

Obama's main theme - togetherness.  We accomplish great things, together.  Not exactly riveting.

Themes for his second term:
* Clean energy - well, this doesn't exactly jive with reality, with our becoming energy independent, based on natural gas and petroleum reserves
* Immigration reform
* Middle class - same old campaign stuff

When all is said and done, I suppose it is the speech for today.  The call for togetherness is essential.  Maybe it will become a rallying cry, though it doesn't speak to me today.

The most moving thing about the inauguration ceremony was the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic", reminding us that we are forged from war, that we are a republic, and that our glory is both individual and collective, based on being God's creations.

Nearly the Eve of Inauguration

Cspan has been playing the 2nd inauguration addresses of past presidents, and they are interestingly alike.

All call for the US to be universally part of the world, fighting for democracy.  All call for us as a people to be One people, a unifying message.  I'm sure Obama's speechwriters want the legacy, so that when this speech is replayed by cspan-of-the-future it will again bring a tear to our eyes in its universal appeal to the human condition, need to be part of a country we can be proud of, need to be part of the world order and creating order out of entropy in the world.

Reagan spoke about all of us.  Even Clinton spoke about individual responsibility.

At one time I thought Obama was inspiring, maybe Monday he will suddenly realize a legacy is not founded on championing class warfare, but on unity.  Not founded on berating your enemies, but in doing the biblical thing and meeting them.  We shall see.

It has got be beyond optics.