Are inaugurations always the subject of such media hoopla or is this special? For obvious reasons, I didn’t subject myself to extensive coverage of Bush’s 2 inaugurations. I don’t remember the Clinton inaugurations being subject to this level of media frenzy either. But that could be because I didn’t care as much at the time and/or that the media machine wasn’t quite as bulked up as it is today. Can anyone shed some light?

I think at least part of the hoopla is due to the fact that we’re getting rid of one of the worst presidents in modern times. The guy is leaving with the worst approval ratings since Nixon slunk out of town.

The convergence (or, what’s that word for bodies of water coming together? I forget)MLK day with the inauguration of the first black president, coupled with the sweet relief and near giddiness of saying good bye to the Legacy President, have combined with the gigantic media monster to produce this extravaganza.

It’s still smaller than Reagan’s funeral. They dragged that coffin from pillar to post across the nation for a week. It was like an Iron Man triathlon for Nancy. That poor little figure tipped along in heels behind her husband’s body down miles of asphalt.

It’s still smaller than Reagan’s funeral. They dragged that coffin from pillar to post across the nation for a week. It was like an Iron Man triathlon for Nancy. That poor little figure tipped along in heels behind her husband’s body down miles of asphalt.

It certainly was a spectacle, wasn’t it? Oh, and Tim Russert’s death! MSNBC covered that like a combination of Princess Di’s wedding/funeral, the OJ trial, the moon landing, JFK Jr.‘s plane crash, 9/11 and every Middle Eastern war combined.

Speaking of Mrs. Reagan, one thing I kind of like about her is her inability to conceal her feelings. Remember when they trotted her out to endorse McCain? She practically used tongs to shake his hand! And then she said something roughly analogous to what a stunned person might say when a proud parent presents a particularly hideous infant, “Now that’s a baby!”

I think at least part of the hoopla is due to the fact that we’re getting rid of one of the worst presidents in modern times.

Fixed. And good point.

I think the race issue, while being paid respectful attention by the talking heads on TV, has combined with the disaster that has been the past 8 years to give us a once-in-a-lifetime event.

I also still sense disbelief among many paid observers and assorted pundits that Obama, over the course of two years, effectively neutered cherished political icons—Democrat and Republican—with a campaign of unfettered enthusiasm combined with an intelligence we don’t normally associate with politics or politicians.

Add to that MLK, an economy that has left the great majority of Americans edgy and concerned, if not downright fearful for jobs, health care and comfortable living, and we have a perfect storm for the inauguration.

Despite what we read on the blogs, we Americans do consider ourselves good, respectful, helpful and compassionate beings. Watching and listening for the past 8 years, however, one could justifiably walk away thinking we were nothing more than self-centered amoral jackasses.

P.S. It helps if the guy in front can speak in complete sentences as well.

I remember the first Clinton inauguration as being a pretty big deal.  It was such a relief to get a Democrat back in the White House!  But this is probably bigger in terms of its historic nature, people’s expectations and the fact that GWB was, massive spin attempts notwithstanding, the absolute worst president in history and nobody can wait to get rid of him.  After the election it seemed like FOREVER until the actual inauguration and now suddenly it’s here and it feels great!

You’re right about the funeral though, Mrs. P.!  LOL, I remember that.

I still honestly do not understand why Reagan has been lionized since he left office.  I saw the Alzheimer’s coming on before he took his second term and, in my mind, one of the most notable things about his administration was the number of scandals involving his staff people and appointees and the number who were actually indicted and convicted. Not to mention many who resigned one step ahead of being indicted.  The whole Iran-Contra scandal was only part of it!

Sad to say if history can whitewash all of that and turn Reagan into the Great American Folk Hero, maybe GWB will one day morph into The President Who Kept Amurika Safe.  What a nauseating thought.

Are inaugurations always the subject of such media hoopla or is this special?

Sort of:

I have been in DC since Nixon resigned(and Iwasn’t a child then either). It is not just Bush leaving(I was at his last inaug- I was a protester against his war- his inaug was not big at all)- if someone else had won- we would not have crowds of this size. Having an African-American president and Obama being the man he is- has brought a wide swath of people to DC

Reagan’s funeral was not bigger than this. We will see tomorrow but so far, the numbers are larger than anything else that has happened here.

the race issue

Race?  What about race?

Hey, waitaminute, you mean that black guy up there is Obama?  That’s the guy who’s gonna be inaugurated tomorrow?

Jeez, how come nobody ever tells me these things?

Even Peggy Noonan wrote that she thought of Reagan as a sort of Macy’s parade float, genially bobbing about above the fray. He left office in a mist of nostaligia and brain tangles, while W is slinking out of town having burned it for Republicans for EVER AND EVER! Sorry, wishful thinking, but for a long time. Any reappraisal of Bush would be difficult, except to grade him lower. It’s almost majestic the way the disaster of his presidency rolled out in fully expressed, golden curves of catastrophe in all directions.

Reagan was definitely a teflon president - all the scandal going on around him just washed off and most people continued to love him, still do.  (Not me though.  I never even liked Ronnie.)

Any reappraisal of Bush would be difficult, except to grade him lower.

A few years back I would have argued that point since the prevailing tendency of the media is to spin history as they re-write it, but anymore I think the way we communicate has changed so drastically, and I mean because of the Intertubes, that you are probably right.  The liberal blogs, anyway, will keep the record straight about GWB or possibly even make him more vile than he is (if possible.)

Ructions over at No Quarter!

Sample:

Ha ha, Larry Johnson posts a piece about “let’s all give Obama a chance, hey his daughters like him so he can’t be that bad” but in so doing invokes every piece of garbage that’s been dredged up through the whole campaign.  He “hangs out” with Louis Farrakhan and Bill Ayers; he wouldn’t release all his school transcripts (!!!!111!!); he actually (and this one has always floored me) went by the nickname of BARRY (double !!11!11!!) as a kid (imagine, a kid named Barack going by Barry.  Next you’ll have kids named Richard going by Ricky) and says that, hey, he wasn’t as corrupt as most of those Chicago politicians.  What a looooooser you are Larry Johnson.

Wow, Larry actually sounded thought out and contrite in that posting.  It will be fun to see the flamewar that results, and it’s his own fault…he ruined his credibility with whitey tape, and proceeded to let the racists and wingnuts take over his blog.

Meanwhile, Darragh has resorted to running an illegal lottery!

Comment by marindenver on 01/19/09 at 07:09 PM

Heh. Yeah, dead right, it was a bit like damning with faint praise, wasn’t it, marin? - “His daughters don’t cower when he comes near, so I guess he must be OK.”

But that outburst at Hillary or Bust was almost worthy of John Cole!

Meanwhile, Darragh has resorted to running an illegal lottery!

If she’s hoping to make a profit on that gift card, I think things are going to have to hot up over there considerably between now and 11:55pm (18 comments and counting ...).

Dave Barry had what I thought was the best take on Reagan after he left office: we liked Reagan BECAUSE he was so clueless. He was the ultimate proof that in America, anyone can be president. He also said that Reagan being president was like your kindly Uncle Bob being thrown into the cockpit and told he had to fly a commercial jetliner after the pilot and co-pilot died. If he crashes the plane into the side of the mountain, everyone will say “Don’t blame Uncle Bob! He did the best he could! He didn’t know what he was doing.” Much like people said of Reagan with Iran/Contra, “Why blame the president? He didn’t know what was going on!”

Which I suspect will eventually be Bush’s defense, though all his BS “I’m the Deciderer!” swagger will probably trip up that alibi.

jenniforhillary 01.19.09 at 4:58 pm

  Every one I know if Washington (a couple hundred people) have LEFT the city. Locked up their homes, turned their alarm codes ON, and got the hell outa there…

  I wish there was a way to signal to the world and beyond that I know this is a joke. I hate being lumped into the human race on days when DUMB is IN

Got that? The DUMB is IN bitchez!

She’s so fucking stupid that she doesn’t realize that’s what left of the Republican Congressional and Senatorial caucuses bailing out of town while the DFH’s have gay orgies and forced mass abortions on the Mall. They’ll probably even have donuts available.

We all know that other people (dirty fucking penis-owners and the servile wanna-be women who hang with them) are too stupid to turn on their alarms when they leave town. That makes it easier for the inadequate black males to sneak in and steal their stuff.

Am I the only one who seriously doubts that jenniforhillary (1) knows 200 people in DC, (2) has checked with all of them to find out what they’re doing?

Just asking.

I hate being lumped into the human race on days when DUMB is IN

Trust me, Jenni, we’d happily not lump you in with the human race at all.

Much like people said of Reagan with Iran/Contra, “Why blame the president? He didn’t know what was going on!”

I was never sure whether he did or didn’t know. Either way, it doesn’t matter.  Knowing the president is clueless is not exactly something to praise about him!

Ummm, ladies? Can a brutha get a little help here with this one. I don’t have the ovaries to make heads or tails of it ...

To achieve a political remedy the political submission of women in our political system must end. Women must focus on the commonality. The participation in the political process leads women down a road of division. Until women fully reject the political process to achieve a political remedy, we will remain divided. (huh? wha???) We must build our own political process. A process, like men, (yes, we are very processor, in fact, all your processors belong to us!!) where there is respect for difference of opinion and a respect of one another because of their one commonality, which is they were born male. Women need a process that does not depend on the men and subjugated women who have defined what our roles should be.

I think that sums up the modern feminist movement.

You know, Sheryl Crow once said something in an interview for Rolling Stone that went something like “I don’t think feminism did much for the women’s movement.” I subsequently and for years, despite liking some of Ms. Crow’s music, used that quote as an illustration of why people in pop music should never be asked to render definitive opinions on political matters. Because so often they sound like clueless idiots.

Today, I’d like to just say—Sheryl Crow, I’m so very, very sorry. What you said was nowhere NEAR the dumbest, most confusing statement on the aims, purposes, and strategies of feminism and the women’s movement I’ve ever read.

And yeah, god knows men have always been so tolerant of other men. Other than the males unfortunate enough to be enslaved and colonized for generations by other cultures run by men.

I’m thinking of buying a bulk amount of t-shirts for the PUMAs enscribed with the legend “If only these were brains.” (Work out the visual, kids!)

I think that sums up the modern feminist movement.

To me that drivel read “We have baginas and boys are dumb and icky.”

Okay I am gonna say it, probably gonna get flamed, probably gonna be told that I have drunk the Kool aid…. but seriously are Barack and Michelle not the most seriously cool couple EVER to have occupied the White House?  I mean EVER? I mean just looking at that picture of them, they are so seriously cool it is to be honest scary (listen I am a 48 soon to be 49 year old woman I do not know cool from a hole in the ground but really)  I cannot wait for the next eight years watching Barack and Michelle and watching Sasha and Malia growing up in the White House, how absolutely cool is that?  I mean really?  I think Barack is going to be a kick ass president, Michelle is going to be a kick ass First Lady and in their own small way Sasha and Malia are going to be kick ass first kids.  That is my prediction.  Please feel free to come back in four years and yell at me.

Kerry, my daughter and I could not stand Sheryl Crow.  This was our rendition of one song:

God, I sound like hell tonight
Tears of rage you cannot fight
I’d be the last to help you understand
Are you strong enough to be my band?

Lie to me
Tell me I can sing
Lie to me
But please don’t leave

Okay I am gonna say it, probably gonna get flamed

Nah…

At least I wont.  There’s nothing wrong with being enamored and excited and hopeful.

I think most of us can do that and be mindful, with a jaundiced eye, of political BS.

Humboldt, I don’t have a clue what any of that means which tells me it was probably written by one of the PUMAs.

I’m not sure there is a distinct “modern feminist movement.”  As far as Sheryl Crow’s idiotic comment, I have often heard young women say that they believed in women’s rights and stuff but they weren’t a, you know, feminist, like that was a bad thing. Because women already have all these rights and things, you know.  It’s like they’re standing on the shoulders of the early suffragettes and feminist pioneers and criticizing them for not being able to see as far.

Kerry, my daughter and I could not stand Sheryl Crow.

I guess that rules out either you or your daughter secretly being Lance Armstrong. Glad we cleared that up.

Now, on to the grassy knoll!!!

Humboldt, I don’t have a clue what any of that means which tells me it was probably written by one of the PUMAs.

Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!

Okay I am gonna say it, probably gonna get flamed, probably gonna be told that I have drunk the Kool aid….

Well, I’ll join you for some Kool Aid littlebrit.  I think they’re a totally cool family too and I’m dying to see the puppy when they get it.  I just hope it doesn’t chew up all the nice antiques in the White House (reason I only have not so nice antiques - 2 dogs).

Somewhere recently I saw a “retrospective” of Bush and what a dunce he was and there was a scene where he apparently dropped Barney the Scottie on his head!  Could explain Barn’s little biting problem.

I hold Sheryl Crow responsible for the suicide of Kevin Gilbert, a vastly more talented writer and performer whose work she pirated and claimed as her own.

Sorry. That’s just the sum total of what I know about Sheryl Crow.

I guess that rules out either you or your daughter secretly being Lance Armstrong. Glad we cleared that up.

Well, prolly not.  Turned out he didn’t much like her either.

Before Roseanne went even nuttier than usual with her anti-Obama “Bow to the Woman!” stuff, she won major points with me years ago. She was on some talk show and the subject of feminism came up and she said “Yeah, I don’t really call myself that anymore. It doesn’t really capture where I’m at.” So of course I’m thinking “Et tu, Roseanne? Are you gonna go with some milquetoast ‘I’m really a humanist line?” But then she continued with “So mostly I just call myself a ball-busting harridan from hell.”

Marindenver, I think you’re right in your analysis. A colleague of mine in Chicago, Paula Kamen, wrote a book way back in 1991 called Feminist Fatale which examined exactly that phenomenon: young women rejecting the label, but mostly accepting the principles of feminism and expecting to be treated with equality and respect. I’m not as hardcore about whether or not people call themselves that anymore—except in the case of PUMAs and Sarah Palin, who clearly are NOT feminist and don’t deserve to stand on those shoulders.

Unrelated to Sheryl Crow, however, I do find the notion that women must pursue advancement of their political objectives by employing a new political process totally distinct and independent from any actual political process to be an utterly breathtaking illumination.

Stupid, but breathtaking.

Okay I am gonna say it, probably gonna get flamed, probably gonna be told that I have drunk the Kool aid…. but seriously are Barack and Michelle not the most seriously cool couple EVER to have occupied the White House?

Oh, he’s very popular, Ed. The sportos, the motorheads, geeks, sluts, bloods, wasteoids, dweebies, dickheads — they all adore him. They all think he’s a righteous dude.

*bracing to duck and cover*

I’m partial to some of Sheryl Crow’s music myself. She’s patchy for sure, but songs like “We Do What We Can” stand in my all-time list of classics. I know nothing of the circumstances of Kevin Gilbert’s death beyond Wikipedia’s insinuation, which sounds very sad. I do know that Crow fell out pretty seriously with most of the musicians who collaborated on/co-wrote her first album.

The only comment I can find that resembles kerry’s version of her thoughts on feminism is this, which I’ll make no attempt to defend, and I’m happy to agree that some people should just stick to making music or whatever (though I will say she had to fight hard to be taken seriously in the male-dominated record companies at the time, and can’t have too bad a set of pipes if she was a Michael Jackson backing singer):

I think the feminist movement did little good as far as women being treated equally. My perception was that women had to abandon their
femininity to compete in the male-dominated world. And I think burning bras is not really the answer to being treated equally. Empowering yourself and clinging to the things that are sacred about being a woman are what gives you power as a female. I think you shouldn’t have to change who you are to compete or to be treated equally.

Still, she did physically rough up Karl Rove, so she can’t be all bad.

/controversy

I tend to agree with the general sentiment that popular artists really don’t hold a lot of weight when speaking in a political sphere unless they prove themselves learned in the subject of which they speak.

That said, I never claimed to be a feminist or really spent more than a passing time studying woman’s history.  I am, however, cognizant of it having grown up in the 60’s and 70’s.

As such, I am a recipient of the work of others before me.  I can no longer be sexually harassed on the job and have to put up with it (I have and did), my health insurance pays for birth control and breast cancer screenings; I can’t be fired for being pregnant or having to stay home to take care of elderly parents or sick children; and most recently, I may have to option to take action if I find men are being paid more than me for the same job - that’s a big keeper for me.

Sure, we have a long way to go.

Wow ... I guess I should have just said: “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”

wow - sorry all.  That was nearly PUMA-ish.

@gimmeabreak

Hardly. A real PUMA would see those “advances” as table-scraps granted to you by the Immortal Patriarchy in order to buy your silence, and make you forget that you have no actual rights under the US Constitution.

PUMA? Hell—you’re practically a Vichy collaborator. ;->

Oops, submitted when I meant to preview. Sorry about that but I guess you guys will get the drift.

This is KC.
And this is an open thread so I can hijack it real quick and announce that the unthinkable has happened- marindenver officially has a facebook page. So if you have facebook, feel free to add her, she’s on the friends of rumproast.com page.

That’s all.

How did you sneak THAT in - we’ve been watching the teevee together since dinner!  But it’s true - Gimme I need some help with it - right now I’m sort of a ghost person.

And I srsly didn’t find a single PUMA-ish thing in what you said.  For starters it was rational and made sense.

That $200.00 Target gift card that Darragh is offering got me wondering what the average PUMA might want from there.

Matt - I know what I’m wearing for Halloween now!

Man, that NQ thread is now so full of pre-inaugural win that it’ll barely load - including some flirtations with conspiracy theories that it’s not really Larry that’s posting!

Mort (who nailed it early on with “When you spend the summer barking about the ‘Whitey Tape’ and his birth certificate, don’t act surprised when all that remains here are the loons and racists.”) and a few others are holding their own pretty well against the anti-obots, and Larry’s now updated his earlier post.

Funny they should mention plagiarism even as they not only rip off the PUMA logo but misappropriate and alter the work of cartoonists. A couple of days ago they stole a Punch cartoon, some here might remember, and de-funnied it. The Punch librarian is pretty certain they didn’t have permission (that is the charitable understated British way of saying WTF?), and said she would contact them, but is probably lost in their spam filter.

The “interesting article about plagiarism” is a screed by one of the multitude of envious artists who did not have their work turn into the most iconic campaign poster of this century. I am out of metaphors for their nitwittery.

I’m watching Sean Hannity (yeah… i know…) and Joe the Plumber is on.  So, it’s asked of him what he thinks about the stimulus plan.  Joe says it’s just like welfare.  So, someone tries to explain to him, that even in his own town of toledo, it will put people back to work.  Folks who build roads, make cement, etc.  I mean this guy just starts to explain and Joe The Dimwit says, no… it’s all automotive there.  And, my friends I know in the Industry tell me they wanna work, but they don’t want a handout. 

Then Sean changes the subject.

Mrs. P., the amazing thing is that you have held on to your irony for this long.  I’m just down to holding my sides and howling with laughter at yet another more incredulous post on their part.  But must get some rest, tomorrow will be a big day and, in between watching the festivities and sipping bubbly (well, maybe won’t start at 8:00 a.m. which is when the coverage starts here but by noon fer sure!!) it will be so entertaining to see PUMA heads explode one by one like smelly and not particularly impressive fireworks.  Life can be good sometimes.

I’m watching Sean Hannity (yeah… i know…) and Joe the Plumber is on. 

Damn, mimi, they didn’t manage to kill him over there in the Middle East?  Because I’m pretty sure they wanted to.  And now we have to take him back again.  That so sucks.

Mr. Polly was listening to Hannity this afternoon (opposition research, he says—long-suffering wife-torture, say I)and Sean, even on a fairly apolitical topic, was true to idiotic form. The plane that ditched in the Hudson? It’s simple—-KILL ALL THE GEESE! KILL’EM! KILL ‘EM ALL!

There was an eff-the-naturalists subtext, of course, but just as it would be pointless to explain to my Aunt Mary Jane (WE SHOULD JUST DROP A BOMB ON THE WHOLE MIDDLE EAST!)that there are individual countries in the Middle East, and a balance of power, so it would be impossible to explain to Sean that killing all the geese in New York state would be impossible, that other species would move in and then the FAA would be picking turkey vulture feathers out of Lockheed engines, or anhingas, or something.

I don’t know. It’s late. I have a big day of drinking ahead of me tomorrow. But still this blog keeps pulling me back. Maybe because on this thread, it’s still Sunday and I can sleep in tomorrow, instead of getting up early and schlepping to Stuyvesant Town with a vat of potato salad.

Is that too much information?

Too much info?  on Rumproast?  Can’t happen

Harriet Christian certainly represents for the dully resentful diner waitresses who slam down chipped cups of mushroom barley before cowed customers who actually ordered the clam chowder, doesn’t she?

When you try to explain to people outside of the blogosphere, and particularly the piece of the blogosphere that we inhabit, anything about Harriet Christian and her quest for the NY senate seat they just look at you blankly, but politely (at best).  Thank god! HC and the PUMAs really are a lunatic fringe who only loom large to us because we discuss them on a daily basis.  (Not that I’m criticizing because by keeping the spotlight on the lunacy we can hopefully keep it in that small space).  And, yes, the mushroom barley analogy is great.  I’ve had that waitress before and I didn’t go back to that diner again! 

Good night.  Big day tomorrow.

I honestly haven’t been looking at the you-know-whos for a few days, but the fact that none of you have posted this yet clearly indicates that you’re a bunch of slackers:

riverdaughter, on January 19th, 2009 at 6:57 pm Said:

fif: The big thrill for me was election day. All of this lead up to the inauguration is just one big nipple rub preceding a huge climax. But after the orgasm, someone’s got to sleep in the wet spot.
That would be all of us. The world isn’t going to change overnight.
We’re still fucked.

Yes, you can throw up now.

Why do these bitter frustrated menopausal women use sexual analogies for everything? Oh wait, I think I answered my own question.

As a bitter frustrated premenopausal woman, I think they give us all a bad name. If you’re gonna bitch, bitch. But whining after your mid-teens is just tiresome.

The big thrill for me was election day.

IIRC, at least the latter part of election day for Riverdaughter, Darragh, and others of the PUMA Elite was spent getting cheerily and thoroughly trashed on Southern Comfort (how apt) in a bar somewhere while their followers hissed and wailed and gnashed and clawed anything that moved in a desperate bid to prolong their denial, followed next day by a congratulatory post for Obama from Riverdaughter which led to head explosions all round.

I suspect she knew Obama was going to win long before that day, and just enjoys indulging in the luxury of responsibility-free sniping without even the pretense of struggling to find a “positive” agenda that can be found on PUMA PAC.

The world isn’t going to change overnight.

Well DUH, Kim. Thanks for pointing that out. (P.S. If the climax is that huge, there is NO refuge from the wet spot.)

Don’t look at me like that. You were chucking up already, no?

And the last from me for a while, as this day’s too good to ruin with the PUMAs (though I imagine some of you wunnerful people here will prove me wrong on that).

Well, I’M not quite done yet.