What’s up with that?

From one of my favorite bands.

While standing in the crowd, we watched the jumbotron for all the dignitaries making their way in.  The crowd was mildly chatty and well behaved.  The very first boos of the morning were when Joe Lieberman appeared on the screen.  No boos for George H. W. Bush, none for McCain.  Guess the guy has been publicly judged a douchebag.

When George W. Bush appeared on the screen the crowd broke out into “Na na na na… na na na na…  sa-ay-ay goood bye” repeat, throw fist in the air.  This spread like wildfire.  My sister got caught up in the wave of the crowd singing the same back at the Washington Monument.

When Sasha and Malia appeared on camera, the 6 and 3 year old black girls behind me perked up, forgot how cold they were, and suddenly became interested in the proceedings before them.  “Mama look!  What’s she wearing, mama!”

Aside from the fact that the sound reinforcements and visual reinforcements completely failed to produce synchronized sound and picture (a painful experience to an A/V nerd like myself), the preparation for the throngs of tourists was well done.  The police doing crowd control were very jovial and interactive, keeping the vibe of change bouncing around the people they were herding.  Nice work guys.

As soon as Joe Biden was sworn in as Vice President, a black lady behind me screamed out in joy, “Good bye Cheney!  Bring on B.O.!”  BO.  Heh.

When all was said and done, the smiles, hugs, and tears flowed like a river through the national mall, through all 3 million of us, giving us the feeling that the many layers of ickiness the Bush admin laid on all of us is beginning to wash away.

One last memorable moment to that point was when Marine One lifted off and flew overhead transporting George W. Bush away from us all, the crowd cheered with arms extended, shooting the bird to the solo aircraft.

While I could say it goes without saying what an epic and amazing day has arrived on planet earth, I can’t let it go by without a comment.  A brilliant man, who happens to be black, has seized the helm of the ship America to pull us out of our nose dive.  Never before have I trusted a proninent political figure so much or wanted so much to actually meet the leader of my (or any other) country.  Either way, all my best to you Mr. President Obama.