Inauguration Day 2021: Obama's 12-Hour Countdown in Washington D.C.

  • Thread starter Ivan Seeking
  • Start date
In summary: Ivan is right. It's as if the US had adopted the Monty Python tag-line "and now for something completely different."
  • #71
LowlyPion said:
Hilary won't wait that long.
She can't. Of course Chelsea can hang out for a while...
 
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  • #72
signerror said:
Well, looking up dates on wikipedia, the 15th amendment allowed black men to vote in 1870, whereas women did not get the vote until the 19th in 1920. So at this rate of progress, the US will have their first woman president sometime around... 2060. :rolleyes:
We will have elected a super computer long time before that :-p
 
  • #73
humanino said:
We will have elected a super computer long time before that :-p

President Turing!
 
  • #74
lisab said:
President Turing!
Oh ! You just made me think of von Neumann president ! :smile:
 
  • #75
signerror said:
Well, looking up dates on wikipedia, the 15th amendment allowed black men to vote in 1870, whereas women did not get the vote until the 19th in 1920. So at this rate of progress, the US will have their first woman president sometime around... 2060. :rolleyes:

Granted, treatment of African-Americans along with many of their newly enjoyed rights declined around 1877 after the end of Reconstruction while women's rights continued to improve. :)
 
  • #76
Cyrus said:
I'm heading on the redline metro in a few hours (2 am here, 4 am metro opens)

I'm happy you could go...can't wait to hear how it was!

One thing's for sure: it had to have been a long day. Being in the cold for so long sucks the life out of you.
 
  • #77
I noticed, as part of the swearing-in process, Obama had to promise he would preserve and defend the constitution.

Is this something new they added this time around? :confused: One can only wonder how different things would be today, if only Bush had to make a promise like that at his innaugaration.
 
  • #78
Redbelly98 said:
I noticed, as part of the swearing-in process, Obama had to promise he would preserve and defend the constitution.

Is this something new they added this time around? :confused: One can only wonder how different things would be today, if only Bush had to make a promise like that at his innaugaration.

He did. Just about all federal employees have to make the same promise whether military or elected official.

And, no, it's not new.

Or were you being sarcastic?
 
  • #79
Obama had to promise he would preserve and defend the constitution.
Bush did preserve and defend it - he hid it safely away somewhere where nobody could get at it.
 
  • #80
Sheesh, the day is almost over, and we don't even have world peace, rainbows everywhere, or even unicorns prancing in the fields! I'm disillusioned!
 
  • #81
Hurkyl said:
Sheesh, the day is almost over, and we don't even have world peace, rainbows everywhere, or even unicorns prancing in the fields! I'm disillusioned!

But that's all Hillary's fault!
 
  • #82
BobG said:
Or were you being sarcastic?

Yes. :smile:
 
  • #83
Looked more like a tradition. Is it bad to be excited, happy, hopeful, or optimistic on this day?
Not that people wanted to see some miracles.

I liked this person's comment:

Die-hard Republican

Tom Sims, 45, mechanical engineer from Pennsylvania

I voted for McCain. I'm a die-hard Republican.

But I came to this with my kids because he's going to be the new president, regardless of my party affiliation.

We have to support him, nothing I can do about it now for four years, and if he does a good job, he will win my vote.
from bbc
 
  • #84
The text of the inaugural address is here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090120/ap_on_go_pr_wh/inauguration_obama_text

Lots of great stuff. Here is one (of many) things that stood out to me:
"We will restore science to its rightful place ..."
 
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  • #85
"We will restore science to its rightful place ..."
Rightful place - from whose point of view ?
 
  • #86
mgb_phys said:
Rightful place - from whose point of view ?

The godless, constitution-toting elitists who voted for him? :biggrin:
 
  • #87
Redbelly98 said:
The godless, constitution-toting elitists who voted for him? :biggrin:

Oh good - godless, constitution-toting elitists are my favorite sort. :biggrin:
 
  • #88
On a completely unrelated note - did that young-earth creationist Rick Warren still end up doing the government religion ceremony thing?
 
  • #89
signerror said:
On a completely unrelated note - did that young-earth creationist Rick Warren still end up doing the government religion ceremony thing?
Yes but the FSM is a benevolent God and so there were no thunderbolts
 
  • #90
humanino -

I ATE your Belgian chocolates. :approve:

You waited too long to collect them.
 
  • #91
Tsu! I've been thinking about you. I had some red velvet cake the other day.
 
  • #92
I think everyone in America has a cell phone camera.

At every inaugural ball Obama's appeared at, he has faced a sea of cell phone cameras.
 
  • #94
cristo said:
I absolutely do! But regardless, it's not who he is, it's what he represents in the office that he holds. It reminds me of a quote from a random war film "Salute the rank, solider!"

It is noteworthy that most of us are not soldiers. Again, given the nature of the day's events I do agree that booing was inappropriate. But generally speaking we yanks pride ourselves on the right to boo the President. In fact it gets to the heart of what this country is all about. Not only is this right protected by our First Amendment to the Constitution, but it also by far supercedes the importance of any person who happens to be President.

Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression. Ratified 12/15/1791.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
 
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  • #96
LowlyPion said:
I think everyone in America has a cell phone camera.

At every inaugural ball Obama's appeared at, he has faced a sea of cell phone cameras.
I have a pre-paid cell phone for emergencies. No camera, no nothin' else. If it can make calls, that's all I want.
 
  • #97
A market anarchist responds with insulin for the candy floss of deadly rhetoric.

 
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  • #98
signerror said:
Good question: how could one be excited?

It's not really fair to point out he hasn't done anything, because he didn't even finish a single term in Congress.
The exact same statement could be made of Lincoln, when he became President.
 
  • #99
Gokul43201 said:
The exact same statement could be made of Lincoln, when he became President.

Are you saying for certain that Obama's achievements will shadow Lincoln's?
 
  • #100
misgfool said:
Are you saying for certain that Obama's achievements will shadow Lincoln's?
No. I said: "The exact same statement could be made of Lincoln, when he became President."

So if by some measure, Obama has done nothing because he hasn't even finished one term in (US) Congress, then prior to being elected, Lincoln had done nothing either, by that same measure.
 
  • #101
A number of Presidents never held public office. Dwight D. Eisenhower is a recent one, US military, NATO, to President.
 
  • #102
misgfool said:
Are you saying for certain that Obama's achievements will shadow Lincoln's?

Gokul43201 said:
No. I said: "The exact same statement could be made of Lincoln, when he became President."

So if by some measure, Obama has done nothing because he hasn't even finished one term in (US) Congress, then prior to being elected, Lincoln had done nothing either, by that same measure.

It's odds or luck, or are they the same thing? :wink:

Predicting the success or failure of a President by their amount of previous political experience seems to be a very inexact science. We have a very small sample size covering some vastly different periods of time.

We'll just have to see what happens. So far, William Henry Harrison's accomplishments outshine Obama's. Harrison had a much longer inauguration address.
 
  • #103
BobG said:
We have a very small sample size covering some vastly different periods of time.
Ignoring the minor issue of sample size, it would appear that the odds of anyone outliving a Presidential term if sworn in at an age greater than 68 is only 50%. That's an argument against picking McCain.

On the other hand, the average post-inaugural lifespan for the above sample is nearly 12 years. So, on the average, McCain would have lasted long enough for two Cleveland-like terms.
 
  • #104
Evo said:
A number of Presidents never held public office. Dwight D. Eisenhower is a recent one, US military, NATO, to President.

Obama at least equals Eisenhower in the uniqueness of his name. They're the only two Presidents whose surnames didn't originate from the British Isles.
 
  • #105
It's a good job that DHS weren't around then - nobody with a German name would have been able to travel to the inauguration.
 

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