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Obama inauguration: Who's watching live?

I thought President Obama's speech gave me déjà vu, and then I realised why: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xE0iPY7XGBo I hope Pres. Obama isn't afflicted with the American version of that British disease, where the sign of true madness in politicians is when they start thinking they're Churchill.

Anyhow, Pres. Obama's was one of the better inauguration speeches. Now let deeds match words.

Mr Bush looked close to developing an honest to God squirm at times. Bless. :D
 
Front page of the metro was clever today. 2 big photos of MLK and Obama addressing a DC crowd, in exactly the same pose and expression.
 
Maya Angelou's Notes for Obama...

I am a poet. What I'm going to say to you now, however, is not a poem, it doesn't pretend to be. These are ruminations or reflections upon the advent of President Barack Obama.

We needed him. We the race needed him. We the American people, we needed him.

Banks, automobile companies, insurance companies needed him. The stock market in Japan and Germany, in France and Britain, in China, in New York City needed him.

And out of that great need, I believe he came. Barack Obama, Senator Barack Obama came.

Intelligent, facing forward, including everyone, excluding no-one. He came with some charm - not enough to make him seem glib.

But what he did is he brought something we cannot live without, and that is hope. He brought the possibility that we might really see ourselves as we really are. A great country.

I believe in the secret part of every heart of an American is the desire to belong to a great country.

I think that President-elect Barack Obama offers us the chance to have a great president with whom we can identify.

Not as a black person, not even as a male, but really as an American citizen who will speak for the voiceless, who will not forget the poor black or the poor white, who will remember the out-of-work Asian and the dislocated Spanish-speaking person.






This is a man who I think I would like to hear speak to people in hospitals, he has intelligence and compassion. Those two elements are not always to be found in the same person.

It is said to whom much is given from them much will be expected. I believe we have been given a great president. I believe he needs us probably more than we even needed him.

I believe that each of us, each American, has got to pay back or pay it forward. I believe each of us has got to do something to help us become more of what James Baldwin called these yet-to-be United States.

I think that each of us can find a place to give some time... I think these seem to be small things but they accumulate. And I do believe that good done anywhere is good done everywhere.

I think that our new president deserves all our help. I believe we Americans, we deserve the most we can get. I believe we are a great people and I believe we will have a chance to show it.

When I see the cabinet President-elect Obama has chosen, I realise he's very serious. He really means to bring together a team who will match the mountain of work - we have men and women in that cabinet who match the mountains.

They may not be all that cunning politically but we've had quite enough of that, I think. They may be more forthcoming, and not a minute too soon.

I know what an American is. You can say it in these three words: Yes I can.

I can be better than you imagine. And if you force me, I can be worse than you can imagine. Yes I can.
In a climate where all men and women are known to be equals, "yes I can" speaks for the brahmin in Boston and the theologian in Nashville, Tennessee. It speaks for the rabbi at the hall of tolerance in Los Angeles and it speaks for the imam in the largest mosque in the United States. It speaks for us all.
Click to expand...
 
Maya Angelou said:
We needed him. We the race needed him. We the American people, we needed him. [...] I know what an American is. You can say it in these three words: Yes I can.
Click to expand...
I read Ms. Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for A-level English back in the day, and by and large it was a fine book, but my goodness, she doesn't half write some overwrought drivel at times.

Perhaps that comment was better suited to the Obamania thread ... :oops:
 
Azrael said:
I read Ms. Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for A-level English back in the day, and by and large it was a fine book, but my goodness, she doesn't half write some overwrought drivel at times.

Perhaps that comment was better suited to the Obamania thread ... :oops:
Click to expand...

Feel free to share you own writing with us, please?:)
 
Already have. 3,133 posts' worth, at time of posting. :D

Ms. Angelou's quote wasn't a work of literature, it was a political comment, so that's how I'm treating it.
 
I bet his team wishes they went for Maya Angelou now. Who vetted the poet? She was godawful and her delivery made Robocop look fluid.
 
Melinda said:
I bet his team wishes they went for Maya Angelou now. Who vetted the poet? She was godawful and her delivery made Robocop look fluid.
Click to expand...

we winced at the poetry at chez DotC

So desperate not to fuck it up she ended up making the speaking clock look like a skilled orator
 
Rutita1 said:
So, prose written in the form of political comment is not literature now?
Interesting! :)
Click to expand...
Maybe it is, but you seem to be saying that I must be as proficient a writer as X author to criticise their work. Which is like saying I have to have directed a multi-million dollar blockbuster to review Pearl Harbor!
 
I've missed all the hoo-ha about this but did I hear this right - the new president of the united states is a black man?!

wtf?!?!
 
chegrimandi said:
I've missed all the hoo-ha about this but did I hear this right - the new president of the united states is a black man?!

wtf?!?!
Click to expand...

I don't know what the fuss is about. Zimbabwe's had a black president for years and he's rubbish.
(stolen from AF)
 
Just realised who he reminds me of

Obama_AP_500.jpg


from_left_the_joker_s_inspiration_1928_s_the_man_w_48896fc7f2.jpg


Look at the grin! :eek:
 
Whatever gives you that idea?







Nah, like a wedding night- they were probably too tired to do much. Tonight there will be action :)
 
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