Why is it so hard for you to give the guy a chance?

What was that poetry? I think I could have done better and been more profound in second grade. I didn't think much of the poet 16 years ago. But she got a column at the WaPo last week. What is it about banality or inchoherence that so many on the left find profound?

Thank you so much for your concise impressions of the inauguration, I couldn't agree with you more.
I belong to a group of professional children's book illustrators and sadly the swooning reached heights approaching mass folie a deux...especially great accolades for Lowry's "sense of humor".
When I heard Lowry's invocation I was stunned.....
I realize it wouldn't rhyme, but if one had switched the "black" and "white" parts, the Media et al would be screaming "racism" but when it came from Lowry, it was considered humor.

Thank you Seraphic Secret, I can always count on you for a clear head!

North:

In fact, we hope that President Obama's presidency is successful because then America will be successful.

Unlike the mainstream media we reserve the right to respectfully criticize when we see missteps. That is the job of the loyal opposition, right?

And in contrast to liberals, we will never boo, curse or demonize President Obama.

The nice thing about aging is that less surprises me.

While I shake my head at the maltreatment of these (only slightly former) world leaders, as if they were opposing football players or wrestlers, I am impressed by their regal bearing in the face of childish absurdity.

Neither the rabble's behavior nor theirs surprises me. And isn't part of the pain ameliorated by knowing to expect it?

What is truly ironic is that these very people who boo George Bush in public would be scared witless to do the same to a leader of one of the terrorist countries (oh I'm sorry, they'd call it "Freedom Fighting" countries). Showing public disdain for your leader in other countries I'm sure is a punishable offense - and I'm sure it doesn't tickle either.

To me, it shows how self-centered and bratty these people are. Perhaps we should revive the "America - Love it Or Leave it" slogan. Of course, no government is beyond reproach, but these people have no class.

May the next four years only bring good things.

Robert, in my opinion one of the biggest problems liberals have (and I am a fairly liberal person)is adapting to a world in which their policies have become on many levels the way of the day (sorry I had to rhyme - it's now the law) yet things still kind of stink. Perhaps it should be called something like now-what-syndrome. Too many liberals have become morally indignant moral relativists, which doesn't work. And too many of my fellow liberals don't want to face the reality that anyone who is not a white guy can no longer sit around blaming others for their lack of success. People just don't want to give up the crutch and walk on their own - too scary. It also requires that communities previously held back by extreme prejudice must turn inward and cure what ails them, which is extremely difficult and time consuming. Hence the stupid political poetry. At least that's how I see it.

Still haven't figured out who is yellow and why they need to mellow.

More on inauguration poetry.

I'm one of those former die hard "R's evil, D's good" hypocrites.

This last election was a giant eyeball burning moment for me about the group I used to blindly belong to. Hateful, nasty, hypocritical mindless, emotional cultists.

Yes, the republican party has it's own freaky groups and hatred but ain't no one got ownership of good or evil.

And the media, oh my god. Now I know what you guys were talking about. PURE PROPOGANDA! Pathetic. Depressing. I'm now an independent. I look at all sides of the argument.

I'm ashamed of my former party and their behavior as Bush left office is disgraceful.

Is this the moment we've been waiting for ? Is this the unity that Obama inspires.

IMHO, Obama is the greatest political con artist of all time.

From a comment I made at the Bookworm blog:

"Aviation analogy: Here we have a guy who once flew a Cessna 152 around the pattern, on a sunny day, with an instructor sitting right beside him. Now he has somehow become pilot in command of a large and complex airliner, in instrument weather and with thunderstorms about, and with several of the aircraft systems known to be broken and other behaving strangely. We are the passengers.

We want him to maintain a good degree of self-confidence, but we also want him to understand the seriousness of the situation. And especially we want him to focus on flying the airplane rather than daydreaming about how wonderful his press clippings will be after he lands the plane."

I thought that the booing was tasteless. But I have come to realize that this sort of act is something that happens on both sides.

Now we'll wait and see what happens, hopefully he'll exceed expectations.

I would have had a lot more respect for Obama if he'd grown a pair and told the crowd to stop booing the President.

Fat chance. Because on the whitehouse.gov website, Obama himself is bashing Bush. Again.

hopefully he'll exceed expectations.

The expectations of his supporters cannot possibly be met, let alone exceeded, while those of his detractors will almost certainly be exceeded.

Robert, I think that this post Guaranteed you an audit by the IRS for the 2009 tax year. They'll show you!

Coupla things:

1. When President Bush had great ratings, the democrat party realized (and sent out a memo) that Bush and his ideas must be constantly demonized, as they have, right up to the end.

2. Obama is a true liar. Let's do the list, campaign funds, Rezko, ACORN, money from FNMA, his birth certificate, and his claim for new ethics while retiring early from the senate to quash an investigation into him and the nutty Governor. If he says he is a friend of Israel, he may be lying.

3. His associates and many of the main stream media are not anti-semites so much as totally pro-dove about Israel. They are completely sympathetic with Hamas, since everyone agrees that 1948 was yesterday, and Israel has no right to exist, according to Hamas and all the nasty demonstrators.

4. I still have no idea why so many Jewish Americans voted for this guy. If they had voted for McCain, I think McCain would have won.

5. Not to worry. USA will not fight Israel's wars. Israel is doing just fine. The kill ratio of 100:1 in Gaza will slow down Hamas more than anything else.

6 The Algerian incident with viral plague is extremely ominous. I am sure that biological weapon is headed to Israel before long, and I don't believe there is a cure.

Ari,

Robert will have no fears regarding an IRS audit...

All he has to do is use the Geithner approved Turbo Tax, and all will be fine. ;)

I am sure that biological weapon is headed to Israel before long

Any such weapon would affect Arabs as surely as Jews. What would be the point?

I do not want Obama to succeed if it means implementing his ideas about turning the U.S. into Europe. Spending spending spending - how did all that spending under Bush do?

Obama's speech was petty - taking digs at Bush by saying now we will regain the respect of the rest of the world (translation - I want those Europeans to like me, really like me) and science will be respected.

The poem was really bad - my 15 year old nephew could do better and the only poetry he knows starts off with There was a girl from Nantucket...

I think most of Obama's support is from those who expect him to perform miracles and give them something - remember 40% of the voters did not pay any Federal income tax - who do you think they voted for?

Saying he will eliminate earmarks and then come up with a trillion dollar "stimulus" plan to aid people like the teacher's union - well, I think this economy will get a lot worse before it gets better.

Yesterday, I was looking at President Obama and his lovely family and saying "Damn. Do we live in a Great Country or what?"
I could not help but smile at this black kid with a dream becoming President of the United States.
What a beautiful thing!
Then, today, someone pointed out at whitehouse.gov on Hurricane Katrina:

(http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/additional)

"President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.

President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina. Citing the Bush Administration's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims..."

Oy...
Couldn't I have had just another day to feel all rosy and good about our new President?
What a jerk.

"President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur.

President Obama swiftly responded to Hurricane Katrina. Citing the Bush Administration's "unconscionable ineptitude" in responding to Hurricane Katrina, then-Senator Obama introduced legislation requiring disaster planners to take into account the specific needs of low-income hurricane victims..."

Yes. I love how Pres. Obama and Joe Biden will be ensuring this with my money.

Let's hear it for BIG government!

Dear Kishke: Since when do Arabs care about killing Arabs?
Dear Johnny: Are you sure its not "There was a YOUNG girl from Nantucket?"

"President Obama will keep the broken promises made by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. He and Vice President Biden will take steps to ensure that the federal government will never again allow such catastrophic failures in emergency planning and response to occur."

Isn't it said that before the Moshiach comes, that chutzpah will be rampant? Sheesh. What a way to unify the country, buddy.

Excellent article from Evelyn Gordon:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232292929480&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

"President Obama's speech went like this: on the one hand big government is not the complete solution, on the other hand big government is going to save you. As always, Obama counts on delivery and his stirring oboe tones to mask the fact that he's not really saying anything."

Robert, are you acquainted with the character Lord Dorwin from Asimov's Foundation?

The prayer was atrocious, particularly with its implication that whites are the one group that doesn't yet "embrace what is right." How racist.

Some of the nastiest biological weapons have little tendency to spread beyond the target. Anthrax is hardly communicable at all; no danger of a pandemic. Cholera can be limited to the water supply of the targets. I could go on. So, yes, a biological weapon in the hands of Arab terrorists would almost certainly be used.

Booing President Bush and cheering Jimmy Carter, you say? Well, that just tells us everything that we need to know about the next four years, doesn't it? I agree with you: I'm feeling ill.

kishke: The "point" is that in the jihad against the kuffar, Arabs (esp. Pali Arabs) are expendable.

That's a pretty good summary, Robert. The excerpt from Lowery's "sermon" is jive talkin'. Nothing more, nothing less. Reminds me of the United Negro College Fund's slogan from when I was a kid: "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."

As for the "poetry" part of the Inaugural, it scores another point for the truism, dating from Plato at least, that poets properly are at odds with (even enemies of), not in sync with, the state.

(Comment posted proudly from Montréal, Canada.)

This will probably get me banned but being that I was laid off recently I look forward to President Obama's focuing on the economy.

I am going insane with the unemployment. I am not sure I will survive this. The circumstances of being laid off are particularly cruel.

It is not about blaming Bush or not. I have no idea whose 'fault' this is.

I just want to have a job again.

Obama appears to be taking this problem seriously. Those who have work, can be lighthearted about it.

I am just trying to stay off the booze.

Supporting science is extremely important. All major advances that have made the US into a technological power have come from science and creativity. Respecting science is not petty, it's of paramount importance.