Inauguration Day

I watched the Inauguration this afternoon at SVU. I think as ceremonies go, they did a good job.

I completely geeked-out on two occasions. The first was when the Supreme Court Justices came down the stairs to take their seats for the ceremony. I knew all of them by sight. I was great to see Justice O'Connor there. Justice Scalia made a bold choice of hat today - a bold choice for a bold guy.

The second occasion was when they announced the quartet that included Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma. I love watching Yo-Yo Ma perform. He always has such a joyous expression on his face. All of the music I heard was fabulous.

I was a little disappointed to see so many in the crowd leave in the middle of the ceremony after the President's speech. I thought it was disrespectful and rude.

I wish I could have turned the sound down when the commentators were filling the air with gibberish, but I guess they need to justify their existence. They detracted from the occasion more than they enhanced it for me.

I noticed today(it is really the first inauguration I watched) that the President and Vice-President take different oaths. Only the President's oath is mentioned in the Constitution - the VP's is the traditional oath given to congressmen, senators and other government workers.

I was embarrassed for Chief Justice Roberts today. He had one very visible job to do today - administer the oath of office. He didn't write it down like the guy who administered the oath to VP Biden, "Why not?", I wonder. It was his first time, I think people would have cut him some slack. Instead he jumbled the words and did not complete the oath as written in the Constitution. Don't they rehearse these things? By rehearsing the oath the president-elect would not accidentally become president before his time. It is a small detail, I agree, but it caused a distraction all the same. It would be sad if all anyone remembered about today was that American's finally have a black president and the oath was botched.