Pretty stirring stuff. Who was watching it just then?

Couldn't help but notice how workmanlike the speech was- much less ebullient rhetoric than one might have expected. This seems to cap off a months long campaign to bring things back to earth & tamp down expectations. The strong emphasis on rebuilding the status of science & working towards energy independence for the US was encouraging. Overall good stuff despite the stumble during the oath. I have high hopes for Biden too. 

Anyone else feeling optimistic?

An amazing moment in American history. my whole office basically shut down and wathced teh ceremony for an hour. And the phones didn't ring once - it was like the whole country stopped to watch what was going on. Unforgettable.

His speech was just so-so. I don't think he really had any memorbale or inspirational lines until teh very edn, after he quoted Washington and talked about us swimming the icy river in the winter of our despair. Other than that it was pretty much re-cycled stuff form the election alst year.

And nice job by Roberts of fumbling the oath of office and making Obama stumble in the very beginning. Ouch - that was uncomfortable, but I guess understandable with the whole world watching.

I don't think the goal of the speech was to be qutable, but to show that he was ready to start working and needed us to be ready as well. I think he pulled that off very well. I like that it wasn't a rah-rah speech (in fact the crowd, even though trying, couldn't really cheer at a lot of it) and it was a time to get dirty speech. To pull one qoute out (that i'm not sure FFG likes ) "its time to put childish things away"

I found it wholly depressing that George W. Bush left office.  Saddest day of my adult life.  Goodbye capitalism, goodbye unborn children, goodbye religious rights.  I want to cry.

Heh. Obama had to swear the oath again, apparently the oath-reading guy had a Bush moment.

Nice name by the way Joe. Probably the only US politican of the last century who's even less lamented than Bush himself. Let's hope he's keeping hell free of commies....

LiquidIce said:

Thanks! My picture on the old forums was Joseph McCarthy himself, but this picture was as close as I could get to the good Senator.  Do you think it does him justice?

If he's keeping hell free of commies, maybe its not such a bad place after all...

Here, I fixed your typos..

jmccarthy said:

Much better now.

"I am the Prince of Dorne. Men seek my favor."

dormouse said:

LOL. Thanks for the help.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iFPw_TZ-CtiM3UQ8jX8Rfqpcq_EQ

What's this - actual leadership?! Is America... back?

Here's a nifty site that shows how BHO is tracking in terms of keeping his 500 or so promises:

www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/

 Hmm... that's a very interesting site. I'll be watching to see how things continue to go.

jmccarthy said:

I just had to come out of a sort of retirement to lol at this.

 I've actually been spending more time following the growing list of Obama nominees/appointees who're guilty of tax evasion .  

Tom Daschle--$140,000  

Timothy Geithner--almost $50,000

Nancy Killefer (whom Obama ironically said would "help restore the American people's confidence in their government".)

Oh yes, vaunted public officials, you told us it was our "patriotic duty" to pay taxes, then you showed us just how patriotic you really are...Glad to see our president did his homework before nominating qualified people to protect the public trust.  Not that there isn't plenty of corruption to spread among the parties, but really, these fiascos just back up my pre-election point that power attracts the corrupt, and the last thing a sensible person should want is to concentrate unprecedented power in an institution (the federal government) that attracts such corruption.  

Maybe if we could actually get government officials to pay their taxes, we wouldn't be running a deficit. 

Wow, I actually totally agree with Artaban politically (on this). Must be heaven-sent.

Artaban said:

I'm just curious why there is an indictment of Obama in this. Is it his job to pay their taxes (or even make sure the've paid there taxes?) they have been subject to scrutiny before and it has not revealed their evasion, if anything the only reason they got caught was because obama shined the flashlight at them.

Lars said:

I personally don't believe there is any indictment of Obama in this - other than perhaps his judgement of character regarding these people.  His vetting is going to get some attention though simply because the Democrats made a big deal of the vetting (or lack thereof) that McCain did with the Palin pick during the presidential race.  For me - no big deal - but for those who made a big deal about Palin it should be.  

Other thoughts:  

Daschle 'withdrew'.  I put that in quotes because personally I don't believe he really did, I think he got the message passed to him from Obama to step aside willingly or he'd be withdrawn unwillingly.  

Extemely refreshing to hear Obama admit he made a mistake on Daschle.  Frankly, I don't EVER remember hearing a politician own up to a mistake (other than when about to be impeached or ousted from office/needing to ask forgiveness - this is different IMO).  Gives him some solid credit in my book (helps offset the demerits he got with me for that joke called a 'stimulus' package).  

Frankly, I'm appalled that Geithner was confirmed - mostly because of his particular cabinet post, and because it's pretty clear this guy was not being honest/knowingly was not paying taxes.  I'll concede that the President deserves in most cases to have whoever he wants advising him/on his cabinet - but, I just couldn't vote for Geithner in this case.  

Thankfully that pork-laden monstrosity that's crazily being called a 'stimulus' package looks like it won't get through the Senate.  Hopefully the Senate gets rid of the rampant protectionism/'Buy American'  provisions in the next version.  Otherwise, this thing is awfully close to my worst fears (learning absolutely nothing from history).  Unfortunately, I think this recession is going to last a couple of years.  I'm just not seeing/hearing the politicians moving in the right direction on this.  The only saving grace is that the psychology of the masses does play an important role in helping the economy rebound, and President Obama is charasmatic enough to make a difference in helping there (in a way few others, if anyone could).