Presidential Inauguration

Change We Can Read About: Best of the Inaugural

By Jill Kuraitis, 1-18-09

	New official portrait of President-elect Obama

Here’s some recommended reading, chosen by NewWest.Net writers and editors. Click on the story title links for the full articles. Readers are invited to post their favorite writing about the inauguration in Comments.

Obama Reaches Out for McCain’s Counsel - New York Times|David D. Kirkpatrick
Not long after Senator John McCain returned last month from an official trip to Iraq and Pakistan, he received a phone call from President-elect Barack Obama.

As contenders for the presidency, the two had hammered each other for much of 2008 over their conflicting approaches to foreign policy, especially in Iraq. (He’d lose a war! He’d stay a hundred years!) Now, however, Mr. Obama said he wanted Mr. McCain’s advice, people in each camp briefed on the conversation said. What did he see on the trip? What did he learn?

Poll Finds Faith in Obama, Mixed With Patience – New York Times
President-elect Barack Obama is riding a powerful wave of optimism into the White House, with Americans confident he can turn the economy around but prepared to give him years to deal with the crush of problems he faces starting Tuesday, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Inauguration Day: Tuesday The Culmination of a Uniquely American Life
 - Associated Press|Sharon Cohen
Every year, the dedicated teacher would put together a bulletin board for Black History Month, honoring famous achievers.

There was Martin Luther King Jr., of course. Thurgood Marshall, the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice. George Washington Carver, the inventor and scientist.

Several years ago, Loretta Augustine-Herron added a little-known face to the board at her Mississippi school. It was a photo of a friend she had worked closely with in Chicago who was just launching his political career. His name was Barack Obama. “Who is he?” the kids would ask.  “Just remember the name,” she’d tell them. “Just remember the name. You need to know who this is because he’s going to be president one day.”

How to Turn Over a New Inaugural Leaf – Mother Jones|Tom Engelhardt
We consider ours a singular age of individual psychology and self-awareness. Isn’t it strange then that our recent presidents have had nothing either modest or insightful to say about themselves in their first inaugural addresses, while our earliest presidents in their earliest moments spoke openly of their failings, limitations, and deficiencies. What recent president would have considered saying, as Jefferson did, of the task ahead, “I shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking”?

Military Leaders to Be Among Obama’s First Priorities- New York Times
On his first full day in office, President-elect Barack Obama will order American military leaders to plan the speedy withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq and will direct his economic advisers to do everything possible to avert a prolonged downturn and double-digit unemployment, his top aides said Sunday.

Obama’s Path to Faith Was Eclectic - Washington Post
The presidential inauguration ceremony on Tuesday will begin and end with prayers from two men whom Barack Obama considers role models, advisers and dear friends. One, Joseph Lowery, is an 87-year-old black liberal Methodist from the Deep South who spent his career fighting for civil rights. The other, Rick Warren,9 is a 54-year-old white conservative evangelical from Southern California who fights same-sex unions. The two religious icons are, Lowery said, “usually on opposite sides of the chart.” But Obama will step onstage with them, set his hand on a Bible and feel comfortable in the vast space in between.

The New Man – New Republic
Of all the contradictions embodied by Barack Obama, none is more fascinating than the tension between his clear instinct toward idealism and his equally apparent devotion to pragmatism. It was the idealistic Obama that the country got to know first--through the soaring exhortations of a 2004 convention speech, and later as we began to digest the rough outlines of a resume that included a stint as a community organizer in a poor Chicago neighborhood. But, over the course of the 2008 campaign--even as he darted around the country delivering speeches crammed with paeans to hope--a different side of Obama revealed itself. This Obama was disciplined, practical, and cautious--politically liberal, yes, but in many ways temperamentally conservative. He was also decidedly unafraid of the trade-offs, compromises, and conflicts inherent to electoral politics.

The Long, Lame Goodbye - New York Times|Maureen Dowd
As Barack Obama got to town, one of the first things he did was seek the counsel of past presidents, including George Bush senior.

As W. was leaving town, one of the last things he did was explain why he never sought the counsel of his father on issues that his father knew intimately, like Iraq and Saddam.

When Brit Hume did a joint interview last week with Bush father and son, dubbed “41st guy” and “43rd guy” by W., the Fox anchor asked whether it was true that “there wasn’t a lot of give and take” between them, except on family matters.

“See,” the Oedipally oddball W. replied, “the interesting thing is that a president has got plenty of advisers, but what a president never has is someone who gave him unconditional love.”

Six Vying To Become The Next RNC Chair – Washington Post
Following an election that has left Republicans with no clear vision about how to regain power, the normally low-profile race to head the GOP’s national committee has turned into a six-man showdown that has opened rifts along racial, regional and ideological lines.

The Media Myth About the Cost of Obama’s Inauguration – Media Matters|Eric Boehlert
The Internet and cable news were filled with chatter about the jaw-dropping (and unsubstantiated) number suddenly attached to Obama’s swearing-in. But the sloppy reporting and online gossip about the price tag illustrated what happens when journalists don’t do their job and online partisans take advantage of that kind of work.
It also highlighted the type of news you can generate when making blatantly false comparisons. In this case, it was the cost of the Obama and Bush inaugurations. The connection was unfair because the Obama figure of $160 million that got repeated in the press included security costs associated with the massive event. But the Bush tab of $42 million left out those enormous costs. Talk about stacking the deck – and that’s just the beginning.

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