My thoughts on the Inauguration of the 44th President of the United States

Like millions of other people, I am watching Obama’s inauguration on CNN.com and Facebook. It’s interesting to watch all of the prior Presidents come in and listen to the music playing. It feels oddly imperial and royal. It’s the first time I have had a sense of real unity in America.. We don’t often have the opportunity to see so many famous politicians in one place with all of this celebratory military sounding brass music. It has a regalness to it that we’re almost completely unaccustomed to these days. The way people are announced on the way through the arch is reminiscent of the old English court events where people would enter and their names would be announced so that people could applaud them.

The crowd seemed to really love the Clintons. I’m waiting to see how they react to George W.

The CNN talking heads are referring to the fact that the White House was built partially by slaves which is very interesting. I’m noting that they’re not showing scenes of the audience watching. I wonder if theyw ere booing or if they were more respectful than that.

Watching Obama arrive. I wonder how nervous he gets at these things now? He always seems so cool. It’s great to see people excited. It’s crazy to see the amount of hope that is on his shoulders

CNN says that there are over 2M people attending the inauguration. That’s pretty amazing.

The Christian invocation is a bit bizarre in front of millions of people who span a number of religions.

I wonder if the singular tie between God and America will ever be broken. I’m watching the Facebook comments and laughed at the one that said, “why does the preacher keep talking about the fact that Obama is black – God already knows that.” Interestingly most of the comments on this session are sort of negative. Lots of negativism about Rick Warren. I have never heard of him so not sure what that’s all about.

The contrast between the military music for all the white leaders that walked through the arch and Aretha singing “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” is enormous. It is like they had to blend the two cultures in one ceremony. Good for Aretha. She probably never thought she would see this day in her life.

It just past noon ET. Bush is officially out. Obama is officially in. John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero and Anthony McGill are still playing “Air and Simple Gifts”.

I’m happy to be visiting the US right now. I was here the night he won. I’m here for the inauguration.

I am unbelievably impressed by his ability to speak publicly and powerfully and truthfully. And he seems to be doing it without looking at notes. How long did it take to memorize this?

He seems to be echoing a bit of the Apple “Here’s To the Crazy Ones” commercial.

On the subject of security vs. ideals, I like that he has specifically called out Bush by saying we do not believe in the false conflict between security and ideals. But he also seems to always take at least one hard-ass line about enemies and terrorists.

Great to hear him discuss Muslim and Christian and many other religions and even the “non-believers.”. To the Muslims, “Know that you will be judged on what you build, not what you destroy.” That’s a great line. I’m glad to see him openly inviting them back to the table en masse.

One of the attendees to the CNN/Facebook just wrote “my company just blocked cnn.com..’bandwidth exceeded’…what kind of crap? this is a global IT company.” Ha. I bet that is going to happen all over today. I’d love to see the post-day reviews of how everybody’s infrastructure stayed alive (or didn’t). And it would be awesome to see the number of global video minutes delivered. It has to be a new record today.

Another great line from the fellow following the poet. “He has come to a high position in a low moment.”

Overall, great inauguration speech. Back to work!