This afternoon, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States -- the 1st black person, the 1st nonwhite person, to hold the office.
The National Mall in Washington, D.C. was full. The National Park Service used overhead cameras to determine that there were 1.8 million people on hand, and that there was absolutely no more room for anyone else. It is an unbreakable record.
Was it mostly black people, proud to see one of their own, take the Oath of Office and become the nation's leader? Was it all liberals, glad to see one of their own after 8 years? Or was it just a lot of people eager to see the outgoing President, George W. Bush, a failed evangelical fanatic right-wing Republican, go away and never come back?
Obama takes just 4 months after the economy crashed on Bush's watch, and as a war that Bush started and never knew how to end -- at times, he seemed to not want it to end -- approached its 6th anniversary. He defeated the Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, because McCain had promised to ramp up the war that America wanted to end, and didn't seem to understand the struggles of those hurt by the crash and the ensuing recession.
Obama's Inaugural Address was decent, if not one of his more memorable speeches: "This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun. America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: Youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk, and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together."
Good luck, Mr. President. You'll need it. As will we all.
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