Feinstein was fine in her role as Emcee, though when she said "In a world..." I blacked out and could only hear Don LaFontaine's voice from that point forward.
Rick Warren did, in my opinion, a journeyman's job leading the invocation. It was not "non-denominational," since he is Rick Warren after all, but he spoke with conviction and spoke of hope for the coming administration, and that is a good thing. He clearly wants to be the next Billy Graham, both in terms of influence and in the perception of non-partisanship. As a result, I anticipate anti-Warren Chick Tracts by the end of the year.
I learned that two thresholds were crossed during the inauguration. First off, when Biden took the Vice-Presidential Oath, power officially transferred across the board. As of then, Bush was no longer president. That intrigues me. Does that mean Biden was the President for the next six minutes? The second threshold was Noon itself. When the clock clicked on noon, even if Biden hadn't taken the oath, power transitioned. Protocol wonk for the win.
Robert Bennett, the Republican Senator from Utah who introduced Associate Justice John Paul Stephens (who administered the Vice-Presidential Oath), looks like Alan Arkin.
"Air on Simple Gifts" was a beautiful piece, but A) it sounded in the beginning uncannily like the music for Hinterland Who's Who on CBC television ("for more information about the 44th President of the United States, why not contact the Canadian Wildlife Service, in Ottawa?") and when it segued into Simple Gifts proper I became hungry for a Turkey Dinner.
The problem with the stumbling during the Oath is there are Constitutional requirements involved, so they have to say it exactly as it is writ. So it was kind of grin-inducing.
The speech was fine, and there is some progress in the concept of agnosticism and atheism being acknowledged, but still... "we are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers." So... the choices are Abrahamic religions, Hinduism... and a blanket "non-belief?" No Buddhists? No Pagans or Neopagans? No Shintoists?
Look, don't piss off Thor, man. Seriously.
The nanosecond power transitioned,
Whitehouse.gov updated. We now have a blogging administration.
Finally, there was the poem.
...look, the poem itself was bad enough. But did they need to find someone from the Enunciation School of Poetry Reading? "A WOman... and her... SON... waitforthebus." Look. You got the gig. You're reading your poem at the
Presidential Inauguration. You don't need to convince us you're a Poet Reading Poetry. We know it already. You
got the gig. Either read with cadence and rhythm or read with natural speech. Otherwise, you just sound simpleminded.
The Reverend Joseph E. Lowery gave the benediction, and was a thousand times more lyrical and beautiful in his words and in his imagery than poet Elizabeth Alexander. But by then only seventeen people were left watching, thanks to Alexander's terrible read.
Power has transitioned. Life goes on. We still have a boatload of troubles, but at least we have someone who can pronounce the name of the most powerful weapons on the planet correctly at the wheel now.
