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Today was a good day. Bush ceased to be President. Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States. He gave a good Inaugural Address, and he did so in front of a huge and happy crowd, both on the Mall and in front of TV sets all across America.
But the day was not perfect: a day that lasts as long as this one can't be perfect. A day this complex and involved, with all the plans and procedures and schedules required, will never go without a glitch. And so we had the glitches: the Roberts fuck-up of the Oath. A poem read in the style of a disembodied GPS lady in someone's car. The schedule that started to lag around lunchtime, and led to a parade that started two hours too late, and proceded down dark, cold and almost empty streets until it reached the reviewing stand. The luncheon itself, with the Ted Kennedy seizure - but it seems Ted's OK, which is great. Michelle was beautiful and regal in her yellow ensemble during the day - but then showed up in the cotton-balls at night. And now Barack and Michelle are working their way through ten (ten!) balls - maybe that's just a little too many.
Except, none of that really matters. None of the glitches, flubs, or delays have really diminshed what for most Americans has been a day in History - a happy, hopeful, glorious long-awaited day - At Last, as Beyonce sang, At Last.
And I think Obama's Administration - his next four years, and ours -- will be the same way. It will be good, but not perfect. It will be a great improvement over what we have recently faced, but it will not build anyone's vision of Utopia. There will be glitches and flubs and delays. Here's hoping that America (and DU) will look at the next four years the way we have experienced today: with hope, pride and, yes, joy.
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