My 7 Favorite Inauguration Memories
1) Barack Obama takes the oath of office and becomes President of the United States.
It was a moment of pure unadulterated joy.
I lost it as I watched a small child on his father’s shoulders chanting “POTUS! POTUS!” which is Secret Service codename for President of the United States. CNN’s used Microsoft’s photosynth software to create an amazing 3D interactive display of the inauguration called “The Moment” and this satellite photo of the mall shows and this satellite photo from GeoEye puts in perspective just how crowded the mall was.
Chris Hayes said simply (and in tribute to the earlier concert) “I Saw My People” and Ezra wrote of his second-row seat to history:
And on the Mall today, you could believe it. The press was seated directly before the podium — I had a second-row seat to history, you might say — and behind us stretched the long lawn. And all we could do was gape. It was a sea of people. Millions of people. A mass of moving, yelling, dancing, joyous humanity, filling every patch of green and surrounding the Washington Monument. The image richly recalled the iconic photographs of Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. And the assembled politicians knew it. Up on the podium, you could see senators snapping pictures on their digital cameras, pointing at the crowd, shaking their heads in disbelief. They weren’t pretending to be blase about the scene. This was different. This was dramatic. It was a screaming, laughing, cheering rejoinder to those who would constrain the scale of Obama’s ambitions, or question his political assets.
Tuesday was a memory I’ll treasure all my life and a story I’ll tell for all of it too.
2) “This Land Is Your Land”
At the opening “We Are One” concert on Sunday, which featured an all-star line-up that included Bon-Jovi, U2, and Will.I.Am on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in front of an audience of 400,000. But the most amazing moment came not when Kal Penn or Jack Black spoke of famous inauguration speeches (which was just kind of weird) but when Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger took to the stage to lead the crowd, and the nation, in a rendition of “This Land is Your Land.” And the entire crowd, from the Washington Monument almost a mile away to Barack Obama in the front row, joined in singing.
In the basement of the Hay Adam’s hotel where I was, I watched as an entire crowd of strangers joined in singing “This Land is Your Land.” And as my boss introduced his young son to a better world.
As the insightful Chris Haye’s later wrote “I Saw My People“:
My first thought, as I took in the sight from the press stand [on inauguration], was that I wanted them all to stay.
I’d felt the same way on Sunday listening to 89-year-old Pete Seeger sing Woody Guthrie’s oft-omitted verses to “This Land Is Your Land” on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “In the squares of the city,” he sang to the half-million who’d assembled, “by the shadow of the steeple, by the relief office–I saw my people.”
I saw my people. It’s been a long time since a lot of people in this country felt like their government saw them.
3) Barack Obama Thanks His Campaign Staff at the Staff Ball and Throws in A “Departed” Reference.
On Wednesday, after six days of excessive celebrating, Aaron and I somehow picked our suits off the floor, chugged some tussin, and dragged ourselves out of our apartment to the final inaugural ball of 2009, the Obama for America staff ball. Thankfully they were only serving beer and wine
Entering the staff ball to U2′s “The City of Blinding Lights”
Obama: “Look at you, you guys are kids! And maybe its because so many of you are so young or at least young at heart that you could imagine what had not been done before. You didn’t know any better when people said I couldn’t win!”
And then Obama dropped one of Mark Walhberg’s lines from “The Departed” when talking about David Plouffe! Beginning of the video clip below!
Our president is so much fucking cooler then anyone’s president.
4) The Beastie Boys play Sabotage and Dedicate it to George W. Bush “for the last time!”
On Monday night at the Rock the Vote concert the Beastie Boys dedicated their encore performance of “Sabotage” to “George W. Bush for the last time.” The moment proved too much, too emotional, for my unnamed roommate.
5) Watching Bush’s Helicopter Fly Overhead for the Last Time.
On our way out of what had been the Purple Tunnel of Doom heading towards Massachusetts Ave. we looked up to see George W. Bush’s Marine One (or now Executive One) helicopter pass over us for the last time.
I saw this photo on the AP photo wire of Bush looking out on DC as he departed…
And I couldn’t help but be reminded of this photo from Katrina.
6) Jay-Z sings “I got 99 problems but a Bush Ain’t One” leads a cheer of “na na na na hey hey goodbye” and replaces “HOVA” with “OBAMA”
At the staff ball on Wednesday night Jay-Z took to the stage and a few songs put up a photo of Bush and said “once again these opinions are mine and mine alone” and lead the crowd in “a nice goodbye.” See below:
And then he replaced “I got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one” with “I got 99 problems but a Bush ain’t one!”
This wasn’t Jay-Z’s first performance for the campaign, I still get moved by his “Obama’s Running so We All Can Fly” video from Obama For America:
7) Eye Street in Front of the White House after Obama had Arrived.
After the swearing-in I headed to the roof of the Hay Adams for a TechNet event where I was able to watch the parade enter the White House and Obama walk across the White House lawn for the first time.
After that I walked out of the Hay Adam’s I came out on Eye Street, which was filled with hundred, no thousands, of people across from the White House. The street was alive, teeming with joy and humanity.
And I was overwhelmed. The Kerry office had been only a few blocks from the White House and on the longest of night’s I would walk by the White House and remind myself why I was working so hard. And on Election Day in 2004 I had to be at the office at 4am but woke up a few minutes early so I could walk by the White House one final time. For months after the election I couldn’t bring myself to walk by it, to come to terms with the failure of what I had worked so hard for.
But on I Tuesday, as I stared at the mass of people just out, enjoying their capital and staring at the White House through the security fences and past the parade stands, I broke down tearing up and smiling. And all I could think about was that Obama was right, “There’s nothing we can’t do…”
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