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Now for the hard part

January 21, 2009 – 6:40 am
By skepticlawyer

Courtesy DeusExMacintosh. There are more (including some rather stingier bits of humour) at her place.

inauguration1

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11 Comments

  1. Adrien
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 5:29 pm | Permalink

    There is something imperious about Obama, but then you’ve just reminded me, there’s something Pharaohnic about that statue of Lincoln.

    It’s less like an inauguratuion and more like some cosmic event of grave theological importance. Again: He’d better be good or he will be despised.

    But at least this time the Yanks’ve elected someone who doesn’t mangle the English language.

  2. Lizzie
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 7:24 pm | Permalink

    Someone described his head moving from side to side when Delivering The Speech – without eye contact, especially to frontal cameras, beyond which there were many people – as resembling a metronome.

  3. John Greenfield
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 8:09 pm | Permalink

    Perhaps the first place we should start is to acknowledge Obama selected a gung-ho “Let’s nuke them Muslims” neocon as secretary of state (NTTIAWWT), while claiming in his speech

    and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

    Shorter Barack: Turn on the taps of good old US imperialism and world domination full bore!

    At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people…

    Shorter Barack: Patriarchal capitalism will flourish under my paternal watch. HAs anybody read any reactions from the Hairy-Legged Ones yet? :)

  4. DeusExMacintosh
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 10:05 pm | Permalink

    Yes, Lauredhel at Hoydens had a very thoughtful piece on the Invocation and Benediction.

    President Obama had Rick Warren do the invocation while George Bush was still President. Warren represents the old way of doing things. The Bush Way. The way of division, of turning people against each other, of profiting from polarity…

    Joseph Lowery didn’t offer Rick Warren an AMEN; he repudiated the hatred that Rick Warren stands for. Lowery stood up for justice, and for peace, and for solidarity.

  5. John Greenfield
    Posted January 21, 2009 at 11:07 pm | Permalink

    DEM

    Thanks for that. I think. :(

    I’ve read that woman’s ravings before. Do any of you know her? I’ve been around the block a few times, but for the life of me, I do not think I could track down anybody I know who is even remotely like that. Do they post pissed? Are they being satiricial? Are they just really, really, angry, hateful people?

  6. skepticlawyer
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 12:59 am | Permalink

    I think the head-wriggling is due to those silly teleprompter things they make them use. When I did the Bar Course I was taught to speak without referring excessively to a written text (and you do need your written text in court; errors will come back to bite you, and you are actually trying to say something rather than nothing). I think Obama is a good enough speaker to do without, FWIW.

    On the Warren invocation, I think the Hoydens may be seeing something that isn’t there. The invocation is supposed to go first. I thought Obama gave a good speech, with some memorable lines. I especially liked ‘history will judge you by what you build, not by what you destroy’. Somehow I think that line will be around for a while.

    His taste in poets is probably best left unmentioned, but then there has only ever been one truly great ‘public poet’, and that was Kipling. After ‘Recessional’, there’s not much else anyone can do as follow-up.

  7. DeusExMacintosh
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 1:45 am | Permalink

    The music was pants too.

    (It was the choice of speaker that was significant as much as the order – nothing to stop him from having Warren giving the benediction and Lowery the invocation).

  8. Jacques Chester
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 7:02 am | Permalink

    His taste in poets is probably best left unmentioned

    Poor woman. Twice doomed: a vogon poet reading vogon poetry. I think even Sir Ian McKellan would have trouble making the poem in any way stirring.

    As they noticed on the Daily Show, it provided a cheap and safe way to clear the National Mall.

  9. John Greenfield
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 9:11 am | Permalink

    Well, I for one, shall be praying for the whole dang team nightly, coz if the US goes tits-up, we’re all stuffed!

  10. skepticlawyer
    Posted January 22, 2009 at 9:15 am | Permalink

    Well yes, that too.

    After consoling various people today horrified that a man who speaks so well could have such a tin ear when it comes to poetry, I have decided to show how it’s done.

One Trackback

  1. By skepticlawyer » Recessional on March 6, 2009 at 6:15 am

    [...] liberty. And other stuff. Skip to content About usFAQFriendly & generous typesDonate « Now for the hard part Reasonable Disagreement [...]

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