Inauguration
I came in about halfway through the inaugural speech, so the first paragraph I heard was:
A few Americans have accepted the hardest duties in this cause - in the quiet work of intelligence and diplomacy ... the idealistic work of helping raise up free governments ... the dangerous and necessary work of fighting our enemies. Some have shown their devotion to our country in deaths that honored their whole lives - and we will always honor their names and their sacrifice.
All in all, an excellent speech from what I saw and later read. They even seemed to approve of it on ABC afterward. Which I suppose makes sense when you can make comparisons to that awful yet amazingly revered President Wilson, the martyr Kennedy, and the rather mixed up yet generally worshipped Lincoln. He did a good job delivering it. I was surprised with the apparent reluctance of the applause at times, but I think there was a bit of “it’s cold, let’s get this over with and get the FCC-censored out of here” going on.
Sadie actually sat still and watched most of it from my lap. Then after she started stirring, she stopped again when the band started playing. Sort of an “ooh, I hear music!” reaction.
This term should be interesting. There’s no re-election to worry about. There’s no VP running afterward whose chances the administration can affect. With the disarray in available obvious candidates, being bold, taking chances, thinking big, and making major needed reforms will be as likely to help as hurt a candidate of the same party next time.
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