Bob Reich on how America embraced Lemon Socialism.

Bernard Avishai on what's needed from the US on Israel-Palestine.

Note particularly what he says about both Israel and Palestine being cleaved into two separate societies and how those cleavages are making peace impossible without some outside force.

President Obama uses his first YouTube Address as the sitting chief executive to promote the specific goals of his stimulus plan. That and other political news in today's TPMDC Saturday Roundup.

This has been another episode of Great Moments in Popular Diction.

Think the media blew the build up to the Iraq War? See how they did on the financial crisis.

From Huffpo ...

Reports of a recent study by the Congressional Budget Office, showing that the vast majority of the money in the stimulus package won't be spent until after 2010, have Democrats on the defensive and the GOP calling for a pullback in wasteful spending.

Funny thing is, there is no such report.

"We did not issue any report, any analysis or any study," a CBO aide told the Huffington Post.

Another federal employee checks in from the trenches:

I work at the Department of Education headquarters in DC. Today completed our 2-day introduction to Arne Duncan. Yesterday he had lunch in our cafeteria (Edibles, ha ha), with his wife and children. His wife wore jeans and a sweater and Arne looked like an average joe in khaki dress pants, white shirt and tie. They stood in all of the lines and talked to anyone who approached them. They probably stayed 90 minutes. It was definitely the highest cafeteria attendance ever.

Yesterday afternoon he visited every floor of our building and introduced himself to everyone. We all came out into the hall and he shook everyone's hand with a "Hi, I'm Arne."

By the end of the day yesterday, everyone was aglow, since this was already more attention than we'd received from Spellings or Paige. Today, however, was the all-staff meeting, and I can say that the morale in the building increased ten-fold by the end of it.

Our auditorium was beyond packed, with people standing in the aisles. I myself snagged a seat on the floor next to the stage kindergarten-style. Arne stood in front of a blue screen that read "Call me Arne!" in bright yellow letters. He insisted that we call him Arne, rather than Mr. Secretary or anything like that, saying his name was Arne before he got this job and it would be 8 years from now.

...

I know this isn't anything earthshattering, but the change in the atmosphere at the Department over the last week has been really astounding. In the past, we all knew that the Secretary had an agenda that she was going to follow, and that we were only there to affirm that her way was best. We really feel that Arne wants to know the truth, whether it fits with his agenda or not.

We've put together a list of the Top 10 greatest moments of John Thain's brief but disastrous run as CEO of Merrill Lynch.

It's quite a list.

I'm listening to Sen. Jim Webb on MSNBC talking about the outlook for the Stimulus bill. The anchors are pressing him on whether 100% of the money will be spent in 1 year or 18 months. And Webb is responding that he doesn't think that should be our exclusive focus, that his models are the big New Deal-era building programs. He went on to note that you drive around the entire country and you continually see roads, dams, all sorts of infrastructure that still makes up the bones of the country and keeps driving economic growth after almost eighty years. More common sense like that.

Maybe the National Republican Congressional Committee just hasn't updated its website in a while (a long while). That's the most charitable explanation I can come up with for this:

(Thanks to TPM Reader MW for the catch.)

Late Update: The NRCC tells Greg Sargent that the site is "under construction" (although, as Greg notes, they updated the site as recently as yesterday):

"The site is currently under construction. We are looking forward to relaunching the site and fostering a discussion on how Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues' proposal to spend their way out of this recession is absurd at best and financially ruinous at worst."

Later Update: Fittingly, the entire "Issues" section of the NRCC website has now been taken down, since we originally posted.

We're sitting here watching Robert Gibbs' White House briefing. And there is a long string of questions about whether Obama can really working in a bipartisan manner if no Republicans are saying nice things about the stimulus bill or voting for the mark-ups out of committee. And Chuck Todd just asked whether Obama would veto a stimulus bill that came to his desk that hadn't gotten Republican support.

That would be quite a moment.

Late Update: Obama himself appears to have a pretty succinct response.

Franken lawyer says Coleman team is doctoring evidence in recount case.

Frances Townsend, President Bush's counter-terrorism coordinator was just on CNN talking about closing Gitmo. And from how she tells it, there's really no difference. Obama wants to close it. But Bush did too. Only it 'didn't happen'.

Elana Schor brings us the story of one anti-science Bush political appointee who has managed to burrow into a career position at the National Science Foundation.

The ACLU has had to lay off 10 percent of its national staff, in part because two foundations that were big backers of the group were "wiped out" by Bernie Madoff.

A former White House lawyer who handled executive privilege issues for Bill Clinton tells TPMmuckraker that in his view Obama's executive order on presidential records was specifically intended to bolster pending legal efforts aimed at unlocking some of the secrets of the Bush years, such as the White House role in the U.S. attorney firings.

From the Washington Post: "Hoping to recapture the bipartisan spirit, Obama will host nine congressional leaders at the White House today for talks about the economic recovery package ..."

Remarkable how Obama let the "bipartisan spirit" slip away after, what, two days?

Late Update: Not to be outdone, Time headlines with "The Obama Team's Debut: Not Quite Ready on Day One."

Evidence in support of this claim includes: staffers lacking login access to their computers, misspelled names on signs identifying staff desks, and "Obama struggled with the practice of using a different pen for every document he signed."

Blago compares his own arrest to attack on Pearl Harbor.

My capacity to be shocked and outraged by news out of the banking/bailout sector has gotten seriously fatigued over recent months. But the news coming about what was Merrill Lynch is eye-popping. I knew that Merrill had given out a lot of big bonuses after the TARP money started flowing. But I'd thought of it as more of an optics issue rather than somewhere where a significant amount of government money had been spent. But now it turns out that in December Merrill (which was then in the process of being taken over by B of A) apparently gave out between $3 and $4 billion in bonuses. Billion.

Even more amazing, last fall CEO John Thain and the folks at Merrill got the bright idea that the distress mortgage market had "bottomed out", and that it was time to buy, which they then apparently proceeded to do.

New York Gov. David Paterson will finally announce Hillary's Senate replacement at noon ET. All signs pointing to Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand as the appointee. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

I try to limit myself to posting just a few Daily Show clips a year. Seems too easy, too obvious -- even though so many of them are so good. I hate to start using up my quota this early in the year, but this one is right on the mark:

Rice (UN), Jackson (EPA), Sutley (Enviro Quality), Donovan (HUD), Schapiro (SEC), LaHood (Transportation) confirmed.

We thought it was Sens. Barrosso (R) and Inhofe (R) holding up Obama's environment appointees. But now it seems like it's not them after all -- but rather some anonymous GOPer. We're not clear this is technically a 'hold'. But someone is anonymously preventing the nominations from moving forward. Perhaps you can help us smoke the person out.

Another reader checks in from the inside:

I sit here quite jealous of the fresh breezes blowing at the other Executive Branch agencies. Our last "all hands" meeting was last Friday, at which former Commerce Secretary Don Evans told us in a repetitive, rambling, semi-coherent speech that George Bush was misunderstood, and an extraordinary man willing to do unpopular things that history would judge as right. That was followed by a significantly more eloquent retiring Secretary Gutierrez who told us what a privilege it had been to serve under a "giant" like Bush.

So, while others are feeling the love, we wait in limbo...

Could an executive order issued by President Obama make it more likely we'll see key documents on the US Attorney firings -- and other issues -- that the Bush White House has been fighting to keep secret? Could be...

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

A reader checks in from Interior:

Just wanted to let you guys know that there was an all-hands meeting with the new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, at 11am today.

The bullet points are:

- Ethical misconduct and criminal acts by Bush political appoints spoiled image of department.
- We want to be held to the highest standards of ethics and accountability.
- We will respect the scientific process
- There is the possibility that we will form a basketball team and take on the White House. Though Sec. Salazar noted that he has to be careful, as he "serves at the pleasure of the president."

Secretary Salazar was extremely well received, with a fairly open Q&A session following his speech. My first impression of him is that he seems to be a highly qualified, and a genuinely nice guy to boot. He also seems to have brought with a group of extremely qualified people. I'll wait and see, as always. It was a really heartening meeting though; everyone seems very excited. It feels like a return to rational governance.

Reader with experience on Wall Street writes in:

You really should take a look at disclosure this morning regarding the payment by Merrill Lynch of $3-4 billion in bonuses in late December, just ahead of the closing of the acquisition by Bank of America.

John Thain, former head of Merrill and now formerly with BofA (fired today), paid the bonuses earlier than they are normally paid (late January, February) because he knew that once the BofA deal closed, he would be unable to "reward" all those hardworking Merrill bankers and traders who lost a mere $27 billion in 2008 ($15 billion in just the fourth quarter), and whose company needed an injection of another $10 billion of government capital and $118 billion of government backstops in order to convince BofA to follow through with the 12/31/08 acquisition. Without that capital and backstop, no BofA deal, and certain bankruptcy for Merrill and its fine crew of bankers and traders.

I worked on Wall Street for 15 years, and was laid off late last year. I can tell you this for sure: you don't need to pay a dime in bonus to anyone on Wall Street these days. I know this firsthand: there's nowhere to go!

Where would a Merrill banker unhappy with a donut for a bonus go? Lehman? Bear? Bank of America? There are no jobs on Wall Street, there are no jobs on Main Street (and certainly none that will even pay close to what these guys earn just in salary; my salary alone put me in the 99+ percentile in income).

These guys aren't going to leave Merrill because of no bonus to become CEOs, law firm partners, or MLB shortstops. They'll do what every single person I know on Wall Street that still has a job: they'll keep their heads down and hope the next round of layoffs doesn't include them.

One last thing: this is, I think, would be a perfect situation for Obama to discuss specifically. Merrill bankers and traders making off with $3-4 billion days before taxpayers are "required" to put up another $128 billion in capital and backstops, thanks to the fine work of those bankers and traders? Come on...enough is enough.

A lib-leaning advocacy group sent out a press release just now mildly critical of the Obama Administration (not even critical, so much as pushing for more) with the following note:

(Weird trying to find the right tone--this is all so new!)

Indeed.

Cheney: Scooter Libby was the "victim of a serious miscarriage of justice" and Bush should have pardoned him.

At least one of the Senate GOP culprits behind the delays on the confirmations of EPA nominee Lisa Jackson and Council on Environmental Quality nominee Nancy Sutley has been fingered: It's Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY).

Think about it for a minute. This is the Republican Party circa 2009: pro-torture and pro-global warming. This is what they're staking their claims on. And willing to obstruct a wildly popular new President in the midst of not just a national economic crisis, but a convergence of international crises of which economic collapse is just one.

Democrats should take this and run with it and run hard. If the GOP wants to be a remnant party of dead-enders usually found in the backwoods of Idaho, go for it. But Democrats need to remind the American people of this over and over and over again, no matter how self-evident it may seem now.

This is a chance to shape a generation's perception of the opposition, and I say that fully cognizant of how that power can be used and misused. Dems are riding high now, and its easy at this moment to dismiss the GOP. But they do so at their own peril. The GOP is reeling, on its heels, flailing desperately for how to retain its relevance and political viability. Now is when you seize the advantage and hammer these points home again and again and again.

Rinse and repeat.

Late Update: Yet another example of the kinds of games the GOP is content to play. Rep. Bill Young (R-FL) suggests sending Gitmo detainees to Alcatraz, in Nancy Pelosi's district. (Actually, as I read it, he suggests that San Francisco really isn't part of America, so let's send them there, etc.)

Jon Alter with another reason Obama should keep the Blackberry.

Experts we've talked to think Obama's executive order yesterday on presidential records could seriously impair former President Bush's ability to assert executive privilege on his own -- and may have an immediate impact on ongoing litigation where executive privilege has been raised, including in the House's lawsuit to get White House records of the U.S. attorney firings.

Here's TPM Alum Greg Sargent's first post at his new blog at Whorunsgov.com, the new site started by Wapo.

I thought the bad bank was Citibank.

The latest poll shows the right making big gains in Israel ahead of next month's election. And not just Likud, which this poll shows now again clearly in the lead, but Avigdor Lieberman's rancid, far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party, which this poll shows winning an unprecedented 16 Knesset seats. Very dark.

I hear Obama's going to appoint George Mitchell as his Middle East (i.e., Israel-Palestine) special envoy today. Sooner the better.

We're going to be digging more into this today. But I wanted to flag this for you early. GOP senators are bottling up two of President Obama's key environment appointees and appear to be gunning for Carol Browner, the enviro czar in the White House -- an early skirmish over whether we're going to see real action on global warming.

Matt Cooper says military procurement reform is sexy. Really.

For technology-saturated Obama staffers arriving at the 20th century White House is like going from Xbox to Atari, says Obama deputy flack Bill Burton. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

Hillary just made a triumphant arrival at Foggy Bottom. Cheering State staffers crowd what I guess is the main lobby there, and she's making a short speech now. Looks like a campaign rally, such is the level of enthusiasm there for her.

After Chief Justice Roberts bungled administering the president's oath of office, thus forcing the first presidential oath do-over in almost a century, I can see now that Republican incompetence is turning out to be the main theme of this administration, just like the last one.

Still more frightening, he apparently spent weeks practicing.

Let me try to keep up with this. First the New York Post and the New York Times said Caroline Kennedy had bowed out of the New York race. Then NBC said: no, seems like it was a misunderstanding between Kennedy and Paterson (helluva a misunderstanding). Then they backed off and said: nope, she's really out. Now the AP is saying she's still in.

It is possible that all of this drama is part of a single, highly coordinated plan and constitutes the first withdrawal through self-immolation performance art.

Late Update: Here's a more detailed run-down from Eric Kleefeld, who has the thankless task of reporting this nonsense as straight news.

Sarah Palin is whining about the media so much that even Newsmax is telling her to give it a rest.

From the press pool report:

At 735 pm, Roberts administred the oath of office again to obama in the map room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a "an abundance of caution."

"We decided it was so much fun..." Obama joked while sitting on a couch.

Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool as roberts donned
his black robe.

"Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked.

"I am, and we're going to do it very slowly," obama replied.

Oath took 25 seconds.

After a flawless recitation, roberts smiled and said, "congratulations,
again."

Obama said, "thank you, sir."

Smattering of applause.

"All right." Obama said. "The bad news for the pool is there's 12 more
balls."

President Obama just retook the oath from Chief Justice Roberts, just to clear up any lingering concerns.

White House Counsel Greg Craig just put out this statement ...

"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the President was sworn in appropriately yesterday. But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time."

Caroline Kennedy drops out of New York senate 'race'.

Biden had some fun with the Roberts oath gaffe today, but Obama doesn't look amused, does he?

Just this morning Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) declared himself a 'freedom fighter' in the long twilight struggle against Obama-ism. Now he's struck his first blow for freedom by joining Sen. Vitter in being one of the two senators to vote against Sen. Clinton's nomination as Secretary of State.

The Inauguration Committee has issued a statement apologizing to those who were stuck in the Purple Tunnel of Doom yesterday.

Late Update: Late this evening, Sen, Dianne Feinstein, who chaired the Inauguration Commission, issued the following statement:

"I have just spoken with Mark Sullivan, Director of the Secret Service, and I have asked him to convene along with the U.S. Capitol Police, all law enforcement and other parties involved in planning for this Inaugural to conduct a prompt investigation into two serious incidents that have been reported. These reports have prompted great concern by members of the Inaugural Committee, including Senator Bob Bennett, and by Congress in general.

The specific incidents include the report that a decision was made to cut off access to Purple and Blue standing areas, which meant that a large number of ticketholders could not reach their designated areas.

I am also aware of the incident involving the 3rd Street Tunnel, where thousands of people were stuck for several hours and apparently without any law enforcement presence.

There may have also been other irregularities, but I have heard enough to know that something went wrong and we need to find out what happened. Mr. Sullivan has indicated that he will provide a full report.

I would encourage people who have direct information about these incidents to contact the Secret Service, in addition to contacting the Joint Congressional Committee for Inaugural Ceremonies at feedback@jccic.senate.gov."

TPM Reader GR's tale ...

We were at the Mall yesterday but our son was getting cold and shivering so we had decided to give up and go home. As we left the Mall walking up 18th Street we saw that DAR Constitution Hall was open, with a huge screen on stage (and two smaller screens on each side)--a warm place to sit, with real bathrooms.

As we sat among a mostly African-American crowd watching Aretha Franklin begin, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee", an 80-year circle came together--Marion Anderson singing that song at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, after not being allowed to perform in the very hall were were sitting in--Martin Luther King, Jr., on the same Memorial steps, speaking the lyrics of that song and calling for freedom to ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia and Lookout Mountain in Tennessee--and now the daughter of Martin's friend C.L. Franklin singing, at the other end of the Mall, "from every mountainside, let freedom ring", just before Barack Hussein Obama was to become President of the United States of America. It was incredible.

As David notes below, in his remarks today, President Obama hinted at an issue a lot of us having been thinking about: that is, the fact that as the new President, Obama now speaks for President Bush in terms of a lot of things that President Bush was trying to keep secret during his tenure in office.

I spoke to a lawyer friend yesterday. And there seemed to be a little unclarity on which of these privileges are now in Obama's hands as president and which President Bush can still independently assert in his own capacity. But it reminded me of something that happened not long after the last presidential handover in 2001.

This was during the investigation of the Marc Rich pardon. And the Bush White House turned out to be uncharacteristically generous releasing transcripts of a phone conversation between Clinton and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in which the Rich pardon had come up. If you think about, to think that the Bush White House ever would have released the transcript of one of President Bush's private conversations with a foreign leader in order to help out with a congressional investigation is laughable on its face.

It was never completely clear to me whether the Bush folks completely blindsided the Clinton folks or just muscled them by putting them in an impossible position. (I remember one reporting call at the time that gave me the impression that the Clinton folks felt cordially screwed.) But it's an example that ex-Presidents become extremely vulnerable to their successors.

Of course, every president has a successor, including this one. So that tends to keep them all maintaining the privileges of the office.

I want to point out one particular section of Obama's remarks this morning:

Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former President wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the White House Counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution.

It caught our eye, too. But it has me wondering about whether Obama can apply that retroactively to constrain now former President Bush.

As we told you earlier, David Iglesias, the fired US Attorney from New Mexico, has a new assignment: prosecuting detainees at Gitmo. Given that the news came out today, it sort of sounded like this was the Obama team clearing the decks, putting a very different kind of person in charge. But it's a bit different. He's actually been on the job for a while. And the person who approved him for the position was Susan Crawford, who runs the Office of Military Commissions. That makes sense in terms of who in the system would make the choice. But Crawford, you'll remember, is also the one who just unambiguously used the word 'torture' to describe at least some treatment of detainees in US custody.

The fact that Crawford only used that term (or allowed the words to be published) as Bush and Cheney were days from leaving office showed pretty clearly that people in the military bureaucracy were already starting to shift in expectation of the changing of the guard. And Iglesias's appointment would seem to fall into the same category.

The ADL's Abe Foxman thinks Mitchell may be too even-handed ...

From The Jewish Week ...

Some Jewish leaders say the very qualities that may appeal to the Obama administration -- Mitchell's reputation as an honest broker -- could spark unhappiness, if not outright opposition, from some pro-Israel groups.

"Sen. Mitchell is fair. He's been meticulously even-handed," said Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "But the fact is, American policy in the Middle East hasn't been 'even handed' -- it has been supportive of Israel when it felt Israel needed critical U.S. support.

"So I'm concerned," Foxman continued. "I'm not sure the situation requires that kind of approach in the Middle East."

Unstated here is that Mitchell is half Lebanese Christian by ancestry. And I think there's little way that isn't playing into this in the background. Roger Cohen had a good column a couple weeks ago in which he began ...

The Obama team is tight with information, but I've got the scoop on the senior advisers he's gathered to push a new Middle East policy as the Gaza war rages: Shibley Telhami, Vali Nasr, Fawaz Gerges, Fouad Moughrabi and James Zogby.

Needless to say this is not Obama's Middle East team. And as Cohen went on to note, Obama's team is made up of five Jewish men. Now, I'm Jewish. Got no beef with Jews. And I'm sure this post will generate a bunch of nonsensical emails claiming I'm saying that Jews can't be trusted to deal with Middle East policy, which is too nonsensical even to discuss. But if there's reflexive opposition to a distinguished former senator who happens to be half Arab by lineage because of the stated reason that he may be too even-handed, that's really a problem.

A federal judge declined to mandate that Vice President Cheney turn over all his office's documents to the National Archives before leaving office because ... wait for it ... a low-level documents custodian in the OVP said she would make sure they did.

The plaintiffs in the suit are calling it, rightly, a "triumph of obfuscation."

When my first-grader came home yesterday, she proudly announced that the first thing she'd written in her journal at school was, "Today is the integration in Washington."

My wife gave her a puzzled look.

"Wait, what's the word?" my daughter asked.

"Inauguration?"

"Yes, that's what I mean. Inauguration."

She had not a clue.

Obama: "Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency."

Whether or not we have capital-N nationalization of the banks in the near term, they may end up more like highly regulated public utilities in the not too distant future.

Hard for me to figure if we're actually going to get that place where bank CEOs aren't high-flying quasi-Trumps with snazz profiles in the glossy mags. But could be.

This issue is referenced more or less obliquely in a few articles out today. But here's something to keep an eye on in those swooning bank stocks that pulled down global markets yesterday. Clearly, the staggering losses these banks reported for the fourth quarter of 2008 have raised renewed questions about their solvency and value. But I think it's more than that. Is the Obama administration considering a second bailout that would clean out the current shareholders? i.e., making the current stocks worthless? I'm a little unclear why that hasn't happened already in several cases, since a lot of these institutions are only in business because of various Fed-support and taxpayer bailouts. But the issue of potential nationalization is clearly figuring into these stock fluctuations as well.

After the report based on statements from Palestinian President Abbas's spokesman (that Obama placed his first call to a foreign leader to Abbas), White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs just put out this statement ...

"This morning, the President placed phone calls to four Middle Eastern leaders: President Mubarak of Egypt, Prime Minister Olmert of Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan, and President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. He used this opportunity on his first day in office to communicate his commitment to active engagement in pursuit of Arab-Israeli peace from the beginning of his term, and to express his hope for their continued cooperation and leadership. In the aftermath of the Gaza conflict, he emphasized his determination to work to help consolidate the ceasefire by establishing an effective anti-smuggling regime to prevent Hamas from rearming, and facilitating in partnership with the Palestinian Authority a major reconstruction effort for Palestinians in Gaza. He pledged that the United States would do its part to make these efforts successful, working closely with the international community and these partners as they fulfill their responsibilities as well. The President appreciated the spirit of partnership and warm nature of these calls."

Note the order of the names listed.

TPM Reader LP:

Before Republicans are allowed back into the better graces of the American people and into the political half-way house of provisional respectability, they have to prove to the country they can be long-term, honest participants in the positive governing consensus now beginning the process of building out the country as a modern state capable of living, compromising, and playing well with others.

Late Update: Au contraire, says TPM Reader JP:

I don't think I could disagree more. Ad hominem attacks against all Republicans are not constructive. While I certainly think this is a fair critique of some in the Repbulican party, consensus will only come about if Democrats include them in the discussion if the governing consensus is to succeed. Like it or not, Republicans represent a significant point of view in our polity. Exclude them from the discussion and dismiss them as something other than honest participants and the fragile governing consensus will collapse. Perhaps that's why Obama is seeking input from McCain, Graham and others in the more moderate end of Republican thought.

Fired U.S. Attorney David Iglesias told local TV in New Mexico this morning that he's been called back up to work as a JAG prosecuting terror cases at Gitmo. You'll recall that Iglesias was the inspiration for the Tom Cruise character in A Few Good Men, and he's still in the Navy Reserves.

In case you missed it, ABC's Robin Roberts asked Obama last night about the missed exchange between him and the chief justice (from the transcript released by the White House):

Q: During the taking the oath of office, Chief Justice Roberts inadvertently switched some words -- you were trying to help him out there a little bit it seemed with your look.

THE PRESIDENT: We're up there, we've got a lot of stuff on our mind, and he actually, I think, helped me out on a couple of stanzas there. So over all, I think it went relatively smoothly, and I'm very grateful to him.

TPM Reader JF points to this quote from the WSJ and notes that the GOP has entered its Red Dawn phase:

"We have to have a remnant of the Republican Party who are recognizable as freedom fighters," Mr. DeMint said. "What I'm looking to do as a conservative leader in the Senate is to identify those Republicans, and even some Democrats, and put together a consensus of people who can help stop this slide toward socialism."

Says JF, "The first Republican member of Congress who cries "Wolverines!" on the House or Senate floor has to be considered the front-runner for the 2012 Iowa caucus."

Hillary Clinton should be confirmed today by the Senate, and Tim Geithner's confirmation hearings begin. That and the day's other political news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

whitehouse.gov

At TPMCafe Book Club this week we're discussing FDR: The First Hundred Days.

Obama orders military prosecutors in Gitmo war crimes tribunals to seek 120-day halt in all pending cases.

From TPM Reader MJ ...

As an African-American, there is, of course, a sense of pride, but its certainly one tempered by a sense of loss.

I still remember the stories from 2004, when the Red Sox won the World Series, and Bostonians...one of the first things they did was go to Cemeteries and lay Red Sox hats and gear over the graves of loved ones. It was a way of saying "even though you are not here, you are a part of this" and "we want you to be a part of this.

That's an almost silly demystification of the incredibly complex feelings that most African-Americans are going through right now. Black people will not be laying Obama hats on gravesites. And note that I said going through, as if to suggest a sense of survival or endurance.

There is joy, no doubt. You're seeing it on the TV right now. Inevitably thoughts turn to those not here, about the African-Americans who actually walked the walk, the ones who marched, the ones who suffered under not just the lash of Jim Crow, but the lash of actual slavery, even if their faces and the names remain lost to us in time. Those are the people who inevitably deserve this moment the most, to see that their sacrifice, their pain, produced the America we were told about, but never quite could believe in.

The distance between that America, and the America we actually live in dissolved in a flash, and most African-Americans, myself included, are still not certain what that means. That's why one of the first things that so many people did was call relatives, call family, just call other black people. We went out to find meaning in each other, in each other's loss. We did this because there were so many people we couldn't call, couldn't talk to.

"So and so would have loved to have seen this..."

"Could you imagine if so and so had been alive to see this??"

But the joy is real. The sense of pride and pain that are so much a part of this day is why the joy is so palatable. We are celebrating for so many others. It's why if you watch CNN right now, you see people in the crowd already dancing in the streets (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas).

In the end, though, this is an American moment, no matter you came to it, even if you didn't vote for its existence. I wish there was something pithy or poetic I could say that could wrap this up in fine style, but the enormity of the task that lay before us saps both words and strength. I'll let the final word be the President Elect's.

From TPM Reader SC ...

I don't know whether you're still taking these submissions, but the real impact of President Obama's inauguration had not truly impacted my life until a few hours ago, and now I feel compelled to write to someone about it.

Barack Obama has already impacted my life in three significant ways, two of which have occurred today. I'm a European immigrant who came here when I was six years old, throughout my child- and early adulthood, yet i was never compelled to become a citizen. But when I heard State Senator Obama speak at the Convention four years ago with his talk of America having a place for him too, something drove me, and since March 2005 I am a citizen of these United States.

I was a wildly enthusiastic supporter of Obama's since he declared, as was my girlfriend of five years, and I did some work in Nevada last October for the campaign, but I never felt that I was being called upon to provide service for my country. But today I made my one of two decisions, which is that tomorrow I will send my résumé to every Justice Department opening out there, and I will work there, even if it is as a janitor, although I imagine this Justice Department will look more favorably to graduates of Stanford Law School than Oral Roberts Law School. My girlfriend supports me in this, and is going to try for a residency spot in the D.C. area hospital when she finishes Medical School in a few months to come and join me in Washington.

My second major decision, which I made today, only about fifteen minutes after the inauguration ended was that I proposed to my girlfriend of five years. It was completely out of the blue, I wasn't prepared, didn't have a speech and didn't even have have a ring; but she accepted anyway. All I had was the euphoria of realizing that this is the America I want to see for my children, along with my wife-to-be, who is also an immigrant, she is from India. So after finishing my calls to everyone and mailing out my CVs I imagine we'll be driving down to San Francisco to go pick out a ring.

Thanks for reading. Sorry if it was long, but I felt compelled to put something to words after this magical day for me, and having read some of the previous "My Takes" i felt this might be the perfect avenue.

From TPM Reader PS ...

My biggest surprise is that President Obama's inclusive message and total absence of malice; his reaching out to all Americans has actually affected me. For eight years I have been provoked by the Bush administration. I responded by hurling vitriolic invective at both the person and his policies. I was bewildered by the "undecideds" and contemptuous of those who still had "W" stickers on their vehicles. And who were these 27% that approve of his record? I had nothing good to say about them.

Then about six weeks ago, I noticed that my enthusiasm was gone. My outbursts seemed to be out of place in the hospitable and civilized political arena President-elect Obama was attempting to create. I get it now. I understand that he is trying to restore rational discourse between opposing ideas to synthesize an effective solution. Now I feel uneasy when I hear people criticizing Mr. Bush. They seem out of step. I wonder if this can last. I wonder if other people will get it.

From TPM Reader DB ...

It's funny how difficult it is to get a handle on just what it is I feel about the election and now the inauguration -- it's a profound and subtle feeling. To be sure, there is joy. But it feels deeper than joy, and that's the harder thing to get a handle on.

I'm adopted, and five years ago I met my birthmother for the first time. It was a life-changing experience (you can imagine) -- I left our first meeting aglow with a very deep feeling of "rightness." Of things in their place for the first time. The only time I've felt anything similar is the election and (today!) inauguration of Barack Obama. There is an aura of rightness around this moment, a feeling that things fit together harmoniously, finally. We are all reunited with our country today.

With all the hoopla today, I wanted to make sure everyone saw a series of pieces we're running today at TPMCafe with a range of thinkers and writers discussing seminal American themes and questions -- under the heading of Obama's America.

So let me give you links to a few of the selections.

On Equality -- Orlando Patterson, Thomas Sugrue, Olati Johnson and Jim Sleeper.

On Liberty, Matt Dallek, Jeffrey Rosen, Jed Purdy, Steve Vladeck, Thomas Sugrue and Geoff Stone.

These posts are part of a forum we're holding this week with Democracy Journal. More posts on more big topics coming throughout this week.

But what the hell is Howie Kurtz talking about?

In an article on the on-going belt-tightening at the big news weeklies, I find this graf ...

The rival editors [of Time and Newsweek] are turning out weeklies that are smaller, more serious, more opinionated and, though they are loath to admit it, more liberal. They are pursuing a more elite audience, in print and on the Web, abandoning the old Henry Luce notion of catering to the masses. It is nothing less than a survival strategy.

The evidence of this is Joe Klein and Jon Alter. And the fact that Time just ran a column by Jeffrey Sachs. Even set aside the dubious case that the big weeklies have been liberal at any time in the recent past, the crisis of print journalism is making them more liberal?

Didn't Bill get trashed endlessly for holding a farewell rally on inauguration day? I guess it's okay if you hold two, not one.

Personal accounts and reflections from today in DC:

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Reich on Obama's first choice.

TPMtv, roaming in the throng that didn't make it into the inauguration before the gates were closed:

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Sen. Kennedy awake and answering questions.

Late Update: At roughly 4:50 PM, MSNBC ran a report from the hospital. Apparently, Sen. Kerry (D-MA), who's been with Kennedy, spoke to the press and said Kennedy is alert, joking, talking, etc.

From TPM Reader CH ...

(ed.note: Click the picture for full size version.)

Stock markets fall significantly, but bank stocks take an absolute beating.

From TPM Reader CS ...

Reports widespread now that Sen. Ted Kennedy had what appeared to be a seizure during the formal luncheon on Capitol Hill for the new President and left the room on a stretcher.

Separately, Sen. Robert Byrd also had medical trouble at the same luncheon, which added confusion to the initial reports.

MSNBC showing video of Kennedy being loaded into an ambulance, with wife Vicki joining him. Sen. Hatch telling MSNBC's Kelly O'Donnell that it appeared to be a seizure, but that Kennedy was later conscious and able to communicate.

Late Update: Byrd's spokesperson says the senator was not hospitalized and is doing fine. Byrd was simply upset by the Kennedy incident.

From the AP:

A military judge adjourned the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court just before President Barack Obama was sworn in on Tuesday, leaving open the possibility that the hearings might not resume.

The judge, Army Col. Patrick Parrish, dismissed the court until Wednesday "unless otherwise ordered," a nod to the possibility that the Obama administration might suspend the military trials as it wrestles with how to proceed with its plan to close the prison that now holds about 245 men on suspicion of links to terrorism, al-Qaida and the Taliban.

It seems it took less than a half hour for Michael Goldfarb, McCain's cartoonish campaign blogger, now back at the Weekly Standard, to start blaming Iraq on Obama.

From TPM Reader DT ...

Now hearing that Roberts tried to get through the oath from memory without the text in front of him. Trying to nail that down. Great idea. Add your joke about textualism here ...

I thought it would only be some extreme wingnuts thinking that there might be a question about whether Obama is really president since Roberts screwed up the oath. But now Chris Wallace is saying it might end up in the courts. With a bit of humor in his voice but not completely clear he was joking.

Fiat to take over Chrysler?

Did the other shoe not drop?

I have an unsettled feeling about this.

Late Update: I'm wondering about this pardon issue too. But there's an interesting, possibly messy, new dimension. Remember, former President Bush has gone on record with the claim that pardons can be revoked if they have not yet been 'executed' by the pardon attorney and delivered to the recipients. So if there were any pardons dropped at say 11:59 AM, by that reasoning Obama would be able to pull them back. -- jmm.

Drudge is saying it. And weirdly the AP is even falling for it too, saying Obama flubbed the oath. But that's clearly not what happened if you actually watch the video. It was Roberts who flubbed it. (ABC got it right; what's with AP? Following Drudge? Still a GOP town?)

Roberts started the oath. Obama went a little more quickly than he'd anticipated. And then in the second stage of the oath Roberts got the words wrong. Instead of "I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States" he said "I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully ..."

Obama starts to repeat but realizes that Roberts has garbled the words (he's probably thinking, "Dude, this is a big moment for me. Can you try that again?") and then he lets Roberts say it again. After that it was a bit bumpy but they got through it.

No big deal. And wonderfully pulled off moment by everyone. And even for those nutballs who have been trying to get into federal court claiming Obama can't be sworn in because he's foreign born may get a second lease on life by claiming he didn't take the oath correctly. So there's something for everyone.

(ed.note: Needless to say, for those of us in the real world, President Obama became president at 12 noon. The swearing in is a formality.)

Late Update: Apparently Roberts spent a lot of time practicing the oath. Apparently to no real effect.

TPM Reader JB:

I had a purple ticket to view the swearing in ceremony. I got in the ticket line (the I395 tunnel was the line) at 6:30 this morning and was shut out of the event - over 4.5 hours in line and no dice. In fact, there were no police, barricades, signs, or directions. Think of it - 30,000 plus (and i'd venture over 50,000) standing in a tunnel for 4 hours with no public safety personnel. And then they don't get in. We are lucky that we aren't hearing reports of injuries. Truly negligent.

Late Update: More, from TPM Reader AJ:

Just wanted to support reader JB's description of what happened in that tunnel. It was frightening. 30,000 to 50,000 people may sound like an exaggeration, but it isn't. I know some reports so far have said hundreds of people were shut out, but it is definitely in the thousands. It seemed like we were caught in a bad science fiction movie--as if this was the moment when the gates would shut and we'd be trapped inside while the aliens began their invasion. The number of people in that tunnel, combined with the lack of any sense of order, was eerie. That was bad enough, but then--quite suddenly--everything frees up and everyone spills onto the streets. There is not a single police officer/volunteer/whoever in sight. Not a single one. The crowd is roaming freely, pushing people forward to try to get ahead (it's about eleven o'clock at this point, and we've been in line for at least four hours) and there's just no direction, no help. Everyone pushes forward until we reach a gate, and then it's mass chaos. There's nowhere to go; we're trapped. They're not letting us in, but the crowd is so large and confused that there's no way out. Eventually people started to leave (thank God) but others started chanting, "Let us in! Let us in!" It would have taken just a little push to turn that crowd into an angry mob. By this point, it's 11:20 and we're about to miss the whole thing! We don't have time to get to the Mall, either. Thankfully I managed to see Obama sworn in at a cafe. I'm trying to be happy about what is truly a great day in American history, but I also can't help but be completely disturbed by my experience. I want to know what happened there today--I want to know why I was left in a TUNNEL with thousands of people with no supervision whatsoever. I want to know why I had to miss one of the most important and historic days I will ever witness. But thankfully I'm just disappointed and not injured.

Later Update: There's already a Facebook group set up: "Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom."

This is a group dedicated to all those with purple, blue or other tickets to the inauguration who braved the early morning cold (and the crowds) only to end up in the proverbial or literal Purple Tunnel of Doom.

One TPM Reader comments ...

Lowery was more lyrical than the poet, more sincerely pious than the celebrity pastor, and more moving than the President - and he even managed a touch of humor. Absolutely stole the show.

Some bobbles here, mainly from the Chief Justice, it appeared:

From TPM Reader DC ...

Another view from TPM Reader C ...

The new White House website:

Wow. It's like a physical sensation.

It is hard not to feel as though I'm under an assault from history, knocking down well-built walls of skepticism, perhaps cynicism, ingrained knowledge that no real and lasting moments of change are possible.

I think there are some moments for which the only fitting commentary is silence.

As some of you have seen, Vice President Cheney is getting pushed around today in a wheelchair. Thankfully, it's no serious medical issue. He hurt his back lugging books while moving out of the old digs. But it's iconic. There's no escaping the symbolism of the tired and enfeebled old guard hobbling off the stage. On so many fronts the stage setting, the unpredictable coincidences, perhaps just the fates seem to be conspiring to give us a dose of hyper-reality, not just the truth of the moment but a scaffolding of trappings and symbolic exclamation points to make sure we're paying attention.

Today's events are a public celebration. That's obvious on many levels. But what I mean in this case is that the real news -- to the extent there is any today -- will be taking place in documents Obama signs soon after the inauguration, the possibility (still remaining) of last minute pardons, and so forth. The inauguration is a public rite, which is one of the reasons we're devoting so much of our space yesterday and today to our 'Your Take' series. So for today, in audience to your thoughts, we also want to see your pictures. Many of you are down on the Mall seeing the inauguration itself or in other parts of DC. And no doubt you're taking pictures either with you mobile devices or full-fledged cameras. So send us your moments for us to share with our readers. And you don't have to be in DC. This moment is happening in events all over the country.

So send us your pics and we'll be sharing them with the rest of our audience through the day.

(ed.note: You can of course send us your photos as attachments in emails. But through the day, in this post, we'll also be updating you with different ways you can send them in.)

As many have noted, Obama's campaign and pre-presidency seem to have sunk much deeper roots into the public culture than any recent political figure or political event. My two year old has an Obama t-shirt with that iconic Obama 'hope' picture on it. (And before you start giving me grief, I didn't buy it for him.) And when he sees Obama on TV or on my computer, which is not an uncommon event, he says, 'That's o-Bahm-a'.

I'm working from home this morning. And in the other room coverage of the inauguration is running with my wife, our babysitter and my older son Sam watching. And I'm hearing my wife ('Yes, that's Obama. It's Obama's special day.') trying to explain to Sam just what's going on. Now, Sam is a very bright kid. But the constitution is a difficult thing for even many adults to understand, even a few presidents. So listening to her try to explain just what's happening, eventually she had to refer back to his own more intimate reference points of authority and protection. "Well, today, Obama is becoming the country's mommy."

And I say this with the proviso that no one is allowed to infer anything from this about my own views of presidential or state authority.

Late Update: Don't freak out the kids. Says TPM Reader DW ...

I said almost the same thing to my 3 year old today. I said that Obama was going to be the country's new daddy.

He looked up and had a tear in his eye and a pouted lip and said, "I don't want a new daddy!"

I guess he's a Republican...

TPM Reader JR:

Just want to help your site get a better picture of what it is like to be in dc right now. I've been in a ticketholder "line" since 4 am and have moved four feet. For all the wonder an merriment of this occasion, this is mass chaos and needed to be better planned for. Just hoping to take it in like the millions on tv.

A few of you have asked, what's with those "Your Take" posts? Where are they from. We're inviting TPM Readers to share with us and our readers, what this inauguration means to you. Here are the instructions.

Dick Cheney pulls a muscle in his back while shredding docs moving boxes and will attend the inauguration in a wheelchair. That and the day's other inauguration news in the TPMDC Morning Roundup.

I'm reading over various inauguration day curtain-raisers. And I like this one by Bart Gellman in the Post.

From TPM Reader JF ...

Well, here's one pre-inauguration take.

It's all about hope, on a lot of different levels. I'm a policy wonk, and one of my deepest hopes is that Obama will be able to get Americans to believe again in the basic project of American government -- the idea that competent public servants, pursuing progressive policies, can actually advance the common good and make all of our lives better. It's such a momentous moment: for the first time, a Democratic president has a _progressive_ Democratic majority in Congress (as opposed to a posse of Dems interlaced with Southern ex-Segregationists, which was unfortunately the best we could do over the past half century). It's an unprecedented, once-in-a-lifetime, maybe once-in-a-century opportunity to make good policy so that Americans can _see_ the change, and believe in it.

I see in Barack Obama all the best that America has to offer. I trust him more than I would trust anyone to nimbly navigate the daunting political and policy challenges ahead. It's not just that he is a brilliantly competent political thinker and leader. His is the particular kind of brilliance that involves a lot of listening and questioning -- a flexible kind of brilliance that requires humility as well as confidence. Obama the law professor, the community organizer, the son of a Kenyan as well as a Kansan, is exactly what America and the world need right now. The question is whether even he will be able to dig us out of the mess we're in, and do it quickly enough and forcefully enough that people start to believe in the progressive project once again.

From TPM Reader DR ...

I've been deliberately cultivating detachment from the Obama brouhaha (and have all along), partly because of my dashed hopes from the early promise of and ultimate deep disappointment in Bill Clinton. (You ain't gonna suck ME in again, you foolish hopes for a transformative politician! not again!)

But I was watching the NewsHour tonight, a panel discussion with Rev. Joseph Lowery, the graying and regal Charlayne Hunter-Gault (who I had watched making her on-air debut as a nervous neophyte on PBS), and Gwen Ifill, and as they talked about the phenomenon of President Obama, I just started to cry tears of relief and (God help me) hope for this country.

Listen, my mother used to tell stories of segregated WWII-era Washington, DC, where she came to work for the war effort. In her boarding house, the 'help' was black, the boarders were white, and the 'help' lived in a 'black' part of town. I grew up in a border
state in the fifties, where it was "N** this" and "N**" that. I remember when Kennedy integrated the federal Civil Service, and the bitter joke among white civil servants of my acquaintance was, "Work with 'great viggah' or be replaced by a ______." (I'm sure you can fill in the blank.)

Hell, I didn't even think Obama would make it; I thought he'd be cut down, like Dr. King. Now, though, I'll leave a little room for hope. Hope that a country that could do such a big thing, after all this time, as elect a black man president, can maybe do the other big
things we're all being called upon to do, to repair the heartbreaking devastation of the Bush years.

Springsteen and Seeger, singing Guthrie ...

From TPM Reader CV ...

In the past, I wouldn't have classified myself as anything even close to resembling an "informed voter" and as a result, cast two votes for George Bush. Now being rather ashamed of those decisions, but more importantly, furious at what the last administration did with those votes, I vowed to change. This cycle, I kept as informed as one could and proudly cast my vote for Barack. It was as though the guilt of the past eight years was lifted. Despite everything that is happening in the world and in my own life, I am extremely excited about the future. I feel that we, as a nation, have the best man for the job at the helm. Good luck, President Obama. I'm proud to be standing with you.

From TPM Reader RM ...

I'm a 48-year old white man, born and raised in Florida. Before I was born my parents became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. When I was a child we attended a mostly black Methodist church in Miami, the Church of the Open Door. The church was led by an extraordinary preacher, Doctor Curtis McDowell, a very light-skinned black man, a native of North Carolina, who had spent many years as a missionary in Angola.

Dr. McDowell was, like Dr. King, a passionate advocate for social justice. Like Barack Obama, Dr. McDowell was captivated by the fierce urgency of now. And like Barack Obama, he had the capacity to take people as he found them, to love what was good in the most backward thinking racists, and to disarm hate with humor and Christian fellowship.

In the darkest days, like after King's and Bobby Kennedy's assasinations, Dr. McDowell, who had seen many horrors in his life, would say, "take heart, this too shall pass." I've never had more occasion to repeat that sage wisdom to myself than over the last eight years.

Actually, I've been waiting all my conscious life for a president who lived up to the passionate commitments and outstanding character of my biggest childhood role models--my parents and Dr. Curtis McDowell. Barack Obama is that president. His inauguration fills me with great hope for and great pride in my country. We're finding our way.

From TPM Reader ES ...

I'm 18 years old. I haven't seen many presidents. I barely remember the Clinton years--Bush has been president since I was 10. Starting Tuesday, the government will finally represent me and, to a certain extent, the things I believe in. I still can't believe that change is really coming.

From TPM Reader ES ...

Personally, I celebrated on the night of Nov. 4th. Since then, things seem to have significantly deteriorated, from the economy to the Gaza strip. The transition might have been smooth and orderly, but I cannot help but think that we already lost precious time and a few opportunities to start undoing some of the most catastrophic policies of the past 8 years. I do feel that the extended celebrations, while certainly cathartic for the nation, are nonetheless an unwelcome distraction. I feel the President-elect should have taken the reins much, much earlier - say, a week after the election.

We're late already. So please, get to work. Now.

From TPM Reader AH ...

George Bush was sworn in just before my 13th birthday, and is really the only president I've ever known (aside from my passing awareness of Lewinsky-era Clinton). I've never known a world in which government could be trusted, or where I really thought the president's administration had noble aims. I think the Bush administration has bred a deep cynicism in people my age who've never known better. Now, a few weeks before my 21st birthday, Obama's inauguration means that, for the first time in my life, I'll be able to believe in government, and feel like it's actually my government. For the first time I can remember, government can be, as it should be, a force for good and decency.

TPM Reader LS ...

My thoughts on the inauguration include apprehension and fear. The more I hear of the festivities, the balls, the tickets, the insiders having a party, the more I dread the outcome. My life is bleak in comparison, there was another series of layoffs at my husband's employer. He wasn't one of them. The hair salon is empty on Saturday morning, the sales racks are clogged with discounted clothes. Our healthcare costs have increased, again, and the prospect of raises is slight. I'm constantly searching for ways to cut our grocery bills, but fail. The Obamas seem to live in a very different world, with private schools and realms of performers flocking to the inauguration.

From TPM Reader CW ...

As a woman looking to her 70th birthday in the fall of this year...and one who has become blog/politics obsessed during the NIGHTMARE of the BUSH years...even the events of today had me brushing away tears! To watch an intelligent, caring man who, IMHO, GETS IT after the Legacy tour and Farewell Speech of the pathetic man slithering out of Washington next Tuesday...makes me once again PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN! Let's all keep those sleeves rolled up and join him in the overwhelming task of cleaning up the pile of "debris" that will be left behind for him.

From TPM Reader SR ...

I've had an odd sense of disorientation, lately, like the waves hitting the boat are coming from so many directions that I can't get my sea legs under me.

Partly, its a sense of anti-climax. As Frank Rich noted back in July, Obama has basically been acting-president for months now. He has had the policy initiative and has been the public face of America since the Kuwait/Europe trip. So now, it feels a lot like I'm invited to a big over-the-top formal wedding for a couple who have been living together for years. Another disorienting wave is the sense that so many of us fought to get this guy elected because we had a shared vision that he could get the wheels back onto the tracks, but now, instead, he is going to have to clean up a gawdawful train wreck. It took too just a little too long. As I've watched the weight of the responsibility for management of that disaster palpably bear down on him, I've actually felt sorry for my part in doing it to him. And then I thank God its not McCain.

Still, driving home last night, I was laughing again at the way some BBC reporters on "The World" trill the r's and seemingly put an apostrophe after the "O" so that his name comes out "Barrrrrik O'Bama." It's almost like his election is so disorienting to them that they subconsciously transpose him into a more comprehensible frame: an Irishman. at once exotic and foreign, yet entirely familiar to an Englishman or a Scot. Then, suddenly, for what seemed like the thousandth time, I was whipsawed by that topsy-turvy feeling of unreality that hits when you realize that next Tuesday afternoon, a black man with a distinctly un-European name will be President of the United States, and the country's basically okay with that. It choked me up again, so I guess there's a still a good chance I'll get a little weepy on Tuesday, after all.

From TPM Reader DT

I walked out from teaching my first American politics course on November 22, 1963 at the University of North Carolina to be greeted by a mixture of cheers and cries. We have come a long way from that day but since then I had at times thought that I had chosen the wrong profession. I chose politics in the early '60s because I saw hope for the future. Since then it oftentimes has seemed that we have been on a down hill slide. I grew up in Tennessee with the memory of a KKK burning on my front lawn because my father was a civil rights attorney. The question of social justice has been at the forefront of my life since then. As I retire from teaching I feel pride and hope for the first time since the beginning of my career. Because I teach black politics I can tell you with some assurance that Obama has it. He has what it takes to begin to fulfill America's promise. I am once again optimistic about the future.

From TPM Reader EL ...

Frankly, I'm tired of the hero-worship mentality, some of it, I'm afraid, of self-design by Obama himself. If you want to be compared to Lincoln, then govern like him, which is to say, produce the results and earn the comparison after the fact. The retracing of the train route for no transportation purpose is sheer showmanship. Too much self-glorification clothed in the facade of humility. We progressives should not be in a hero-worshiping swoon reminiscent of right-wing Bush worshipers. The proof is in the pudding, and it's still cooking on the stove. A sound and a fury whose significance is yet to be seen. A spectacle paid for by Wall Street...follow the money.

From TPM Reader GN ...

Last year, on St. Patrick's day I was at a party hosted by a guy who's super-hero is Rush Limbaugh, and his son-in-law's hero is Bill O'Reilly. Why was I there? They're family...ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

Anyway, on St. Patty's day last year, the conversation turned to politics and they were all talking about the contenders and I said "don't worry, Obama loves everyone...even you". They then began guffawing about Obama's chances and I challenged them to a bet: $50 that Obama is the next president.

They then shunned me and left me to chat with the women in the kitchen, while "the adults" talked politics and football in the living room. It was a bit of an uneasy situation, but everyone present knew just what kind of asses these guys could be.

I haven't spoken to either since.

But I did get a check in the mail from one of them today.

From TPM Reader MT ...

I'm a white, middle-aged grandmother living in a blue state. I have a nice house, a good job, and a happy family; I'm not on the no-fly list, and haven't lost anyone (yet) in Iraq. I'd expect my emotional involvement with this presidential inauguration to be pretty much on par with what it's been my whole life: interest, anticipation, maybe a little hope that the new guy will do well for us (whether or not I voted for him).

And yet -- ever since election day, I am moved almost to tears when I watch others talking about the incoming president! This feels light years removed from a run-of-the-mill event; what it feels most like to me is the moon landing in 1969. I have that same sense of wonder that this heretofore-impossible thing is actually going to happen, the same undercurrent of dread that something will go wrong, and the same almost-giddy feeling that this could be the beginning of real change for the country.

Just like in 1969, I will have to watch live -- I have to experience it along with the rest of the world, in real time.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

From TPM Reader CB ...

I am looking forward to having a president whose memoirs won't be ghostwritten. Other than that, minimal competence and relatively low levels of avarice will do just fine, thank you.

Why is he still on my TV?

As most of you likely know, the inauguration committee sold HBO the exclusive rights to broadcast yesterday's inaugural concert festivities. I don't think that was a good idea since certainly not every American subscribes or can subscribe to HBO. But they at least had it available free on their website. But now it seems that HBO is going over Youtube with a fine tooth comb and having all clips of the event pulled under copyright claims. Want to see the special moment where an 89 year old Pete Seeger sang This Land Is Your Land on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial? Tough luck.

Now, logically, the one follows from the other. They claim a copyright in the video of this event. And so they can prevent anyone from uploading it to Youtube -- though I'd be eager to see someone challenge them legally on it because I'm not sure how strong their claim really is against the use of short clips. But the fact that Americans can't show other Americans brief segments of these events because HBO owns the event in perpetuity just puts in much higher relief how ill-conceived a decision that was.

Late Update: A reader points out, and I think I'd heard this, that HBO descrambled their channel during the presentation itself. So basic cable subscribers still got to see it. I don't think that changes the thrust of what I said above. But it's an important detail.

Later Update: Alas, okay, another important qualifier. It turns out HBO does not own the copyright. They have a six month license. The inaugural committee owns it. Not as bad as I thought.

Theda Skocpol responds to Rep. Frank ...

The idea that "elites" will "get serious about repairing the safety net" if they are FIRST given billions of dollars of payoffs to shareholders who made bad decisions is the height of naivete. There are no corporatist institutions in U.S. politics that can enforce this kind of bargain, that can corral all the interests and get them to carry through on mutual promises. That is why Obama and the Democrats will get for the people in general exactly what they push through right now and will squander opportunities if they give money and leverage to "elites" first!

This is what Ira Magaziner imagined with health care back in 1992 -- that he could get up front understandings with powerful interests by giving them concessions in the Health Security proposals, and they would let it get through Congress later. (I remember sitting in his office as I took notes for BOOMERANG and having him complain to me that he could not understand why the business roundtable types "lied" to him about what
they would do!) Of course, they turned on him the moment Congress got ahold of things. Same thing will happen here.

The banking/Wall Street interests will sucker Obama and Barney Frank into giving them yet more (unpopular and ineffective and very expensive) handouts -- and, then, when the improvements to health care, college funding, etc. come up later they will suddenly be fiscally responsible with the public's money. And, of course, they will have plenty of blue dogs and small business lobbies and others to hide behind as they make this manuever. Mark my words, this is my prediction.... U.S. institutions frustrate bargains and can only be moved by big pushes of popular leverage at key moments of crisis.

I have to say, my read is very, very similar to Theda's. I hope Frank was speaking in a more general sense rather than one of literal grand bargains or broad political economic quid pro quos. In fact, I agree so much I think I'm just going to leave it at that and assume that Frank was talking about equitable social bargains rather than an actual process of bargaining. Because Theda's right.

I've been talking a lot over the last couple days of the folly of buying back the banks' 'toxic assets' in order to relieve them of the consequences of their bad decisions and get them back to the regular business of being banks. Mind you, my idea is not that we should let the banks collapse. I think there's likely no alternative but to spend a lot of public money to stabilize the financial system. My beef is that we appear likely to fund the banks through what is effectively a bankruptcy proceeding while still allowing the current owners to remain the ones who own these institutions. And that doesn't make sense to me. Now, this morning TPMDC's Elana Schor spoke on a number of topics with Rep. Barney Frank, who is not only Barney Frank but also Chairman of the House Banking Committee. You can see the different portions of the interview in several posts at TPMDC. But I wanted to focus on this passage in which Frank talks about this issue precisely.

The gist of Frank's comments are that he thinks it might simply be necessary but that the argument he is making within the counsels of power is that if 'elites' want the public to pony up their money in cases like this, they, the aforementioned 'elites' need to get serious about repairing and expanding the social safety net in the country ...

How did we get here from the late 80s to this moment? Matt Cooper speculates.

After I read Matt's post it occurred to me that I hadn't given this particular slice of this moment that much thought. The comparisons to fifty years ago seem like the more obvious ones. But while I'm five or six years younger than Matt my recollections are similar. Twenty years ago was a very different time in America in racial terms.

Some of this, I think, is simply time. Some people and some ways of thinking will never really change until the people themselves move off the stage. In a political sense I think a lot of the jagged coalition politics in the Democratic party were assuaged in the 1990s and then that less divided state was locked in during the Bush era. One thing I don't think we can ignore, though, is that American mass culture found a more useful scary other: Arabs and Muslims. That's a key thing that isn't pretty but I think is also true.

With all that said though, it is amazing to me, when I think about race relations and gay rights, how benighted and archaic even the 1980s looks to me now when I think back on it.

From:
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 15:21:35 EST
Subject: Barack Obama
To: joshua@
X-Mailer: 6.0 sub 10582

Hello Joshua,

My name is [ ... ]. I'm Sen. Barack Obama's press secretary. [ ...] passed along your email address. As [ ... ] may have told you, Barack will be in DC Sunday-Tuesday, March 28-30. Ben thought that you might be interested in meeting with him during that time. Barack's schedule is getting pretty booked so I'd love to set up a time if that's something you'd like to do. Please let me know what day/times work for you.

Thanks very much,

[ ... ]
(312) [ ... ] cell

I think I'll put this down as one of those meetings I should have taken. It's a funny thing. I cannot say this email hasn't bounced around my head now and then as Obama rocketed to the pinnacle of political power over the fewer than five years since that email was written.

As people who know me well know I'm not the best on staying on top of my email correspondence. And at the time I was deep into reporting what seemed like the story of a lifetime and in some ways was though we were never really able to bring it together. And as best as I can remember I don't think I ever even responded.

A few months later I was down on the convention floor in Boston when Obama was giving that speech. When I got a floor pass during that convention my usual practice was to work the floor and pretty much ignore who was speaking. And I was doing that for the first several minutes of Obama's speech, listening to it out of one ear but not focusing on it. And then at some point it all registered and I stopped and just listened. Something entirely different than I'd heard before.

From TPM Reader AR ...

So this is why Al Gore had to lose. Had he won, we might have been witnessing the inaugural of President Joe Lieberman. Or, worse still, President Jeb Bush. True, we may have avoided 9/11 because a President Gore would have read and acted upon the Presidential Daily Brief that warned of an impending attack by Osama bin Laden, and because he would have heeded Richard Clarke's dire, "hair on fire" warnings about Al Qaeda. True, we would not have gone to war against Iraq had 9/11 occurred, a conflict that has benefited Iran (and thus Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood) more than any other nation. Instead, we would have gone into Afghanistan with Pakistan's help - notice Pakistan's new found lament that it is a "victim of terrorism" - and rounded up Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, ending the scourge that is Al Qaeda. True, Hurricane Katrina would have been handled with competence, the capital markets would not have collapsed as a consequence of deregulation run amok, and global warming would have been arrested if not reversed. But, we would not be inaugurating President Barack Hussein Obama's first term.

And this is why John Kerry had to lose. Had he won, we might have been witnessing the second inaugural of a Kerry administration, or perhaps the first inaugural of a McCain/Lieberman administration. True, the Iraq war would likely be over and a few thousand American soldiers and private security contractors would consequently be alive and in good health. And, the markets and health care and roads and bridges and our other national ailments would be just that - ailments, rather than the debilitating trauma that they are today. But, we would not have had eight years of experimenting with the extreme ideology that the Bush administration has inflicted on the United States of America. And, it is this experiment that has provided cold hard empirical evidence that the blind obeisance to free unregulated markets that is the hallmark of contemporary conservatism, coupled with the unilateral, muscular, "shoot first and ask questions afterwards" foreign policy that is at the core of neoconservatism, is as bankrupt a governing paradigm as the centrally planned economy of socialism. Had it not been for the second Bush term, we would not be inaugurating President Barack Hussein Obama's first term.

From the depths of our despair that can be graphed as a downward sloping straight line starting with the Florida electoral recount, and running through 9/11, Enron, the anthrax case of domestic terrorism, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, the politically motivated firings of U. S. attorneys, the creation of "free speech zones", Hurricane Katrina, the collapse of Wall Street, and the replacement of the Clinton budget surplus with record deficits, all occurrences on George W. Bush's watch, there now emerges an historically singular opportunity. A brown man whose middle name is Hussein is taking an oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution, something that would have been inconceivable had George W. Bush not been the 43rd President and something that takes on more than symbolic significance in light of the defilement the Constitution has suffered under the administration of the 43rd President.

In India, the country of my birth, we would call this sequence of events "Karma". In the United States of America, the country of my adoption, we should call this sequence of events "opportunity". An opportunity to restore America's brand abroad, by serving as a beacon of hope rather than as an object of fear. An opportunity to remind the world that American exceptionalism is derived from our charter documents -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights - not from our ability to instill fear. An opportunity to restore the rule of law at home, by eschewing torture as state policy, and restoring order to markets run amok. An opportunity to credibly put to rest a legitimately paranoid world's fear about America's imperialistic ambitions. An opportunity to again be the greatest nation the earth has ever seen. In Riyadh and in Rawalpindi, in Kabul and in Kyoto, in Madrid and in Mumbai, in the slums of Dharawi and in the streets of Dacca, the world will watch the improbable inauguration of President Barack Hussein Obama and know that, once again in America, anything is possible.

From TPM Reader MAB ...

To me this inauguration means we have a chance to return to the country I grew up in and lived in until 3 assassinations and one terrible war left me feeling like part of me had been killed as well. I have never waited so desperately to vote for the candidate of my choice, never so dreaded the awful wait for him to assume office, never so joyfully anticipated every iota of an inauguration - in my whole life. Every time I consider the arc of this man's life, I get choked up and I'm torn between kneeling in gratitude and shouting hopeful words from my roof. My heart is full of all these emotions.

From TPM Reader S ...

As someone who regretfully contributed to George W. Bush's victory in 2000 and was unpersuaded by John Kerry in 2004, I feel as though we've been waiting for this moment to arrive. I have a hard time not thinking of present events in their inevitably historical context. And having just finished reading "Slaughterhouse Five", I can't help but come to the conclusion that we had to tolerate the abominable Bush for eight years so that we might finally be ready to elect a man capable of inspiring the broad-sweeping changes that politicians like Kerry could only pontificate about. That Barack Obama was written in the stars of our nation's history, as much as, for some dumbass reason, George Bush was. But what I've been thinking about this past week, is how the story of Captain Sullenberger seems to be a divine metaphor for the situation we're in now. We as a nation have been flying along fine in history until the flock of geese that was the Bush Adminstration, got sucked through the jets of history and although this plane is going down and the landing may be rough, with the right pilot at the helm, we can all expect to be okay in the end. I mean, when's the last time a plane crash on the news has given us hope?

From TPM Reader SH ...

I've lived in America ever since I was five, but I only recently became a citizen at the age of 35. In fact, the day that I became a citizen is the day that George W. Bush was elected to his second term in office.

I don't know why I didn't become a citizen earlier, but I do know what pushed me to become one. The policies of George W. Bush were damaging the country that I loved, and I couldn't make a difference unless I could vote.

My father had the opposite viewpoint. He has been here as long as I have, and he is still not a citizen. With Bush in power, he became ashamed of America, and he started talking about how he never wanted to be a citizen of this country. In fact, he told me this on the day that I became a citizen. I love him, but I felt like punching him.

Today, I have a different feeling. After eight years of watching this country do things that I am not proud of, I have voted -- for the first time in my life -- for someone who I believe will help make things better. Better not only in terms of policy, but in terms of tone. I look at the things that Obama has done and I am truly hopeful that he can help us get past our troubles over the last eight years and bring us together as a country.

My father feels the same way.

From TPM Reader CL ...

At our magnet school in South Central Los Angeles, I was asked to say a few words to about 120 of our male students the day after Obama was elected. I told them that this year (then 2008), the person our school was named for--Martin Luther King--was assassinated forty years ago. And I told them that if at that time, or ten years later in 1978 or ten years after that in 1988 or ten years after in 1998, they had placed a wager with me or anyone living that America would have a black president in 2008, they would have won a lot of bets. I mean, they would have been rich. Because in all of those years, to think that this country would elect a person of color as president was beyond the realm of possibility. Most of my students are black and brown. Until Obama was elected, the idea of being president of the United States was, frankly, so far outside of their experience it was not something they could relate to. Now, that's changed forever and I cannot overstate the importance of that.

From TPM Reader TB

I'm probably one of your standard readers: 40, white male, progressive, and very cynical. If pushed, I would agree to the statement "I love my country", and I have traveled enough abroad to realize what privileges we have here and usually take for granted. Yet for most of my life, my love of America, has been similar to what I think Al Franken once stated, is the way we adults love family members that have deeply disappointed us -- critical, sometimes too judgmental, and sad/angry at the waste of so much potential.

Yet this last year it has changed, and with the election and coming inauguration, I feel a true sense of pride, optimism, and real patriotism. Suddenly it does not feel squishy to sing along to "America the Beautiful". And I am not ashamed to say that I had tears streaming down my face as I sang along with Bono doing Pride and City of Blinding Light. I felt all these emotions at once -- gratefulness to all that have sacrificed before us to make this country a better place, as imperfect as it may be, and a real sense of (yes!) hope of what we actually do have the potential to become if we can all just come together and work for the common good of our country in the next (hopefully) 8 years.

That Obama has already started and instilled this feeling is a testament to his power and promise, and also to the incredible sense of danger mixed with opportunity that this time has given us.

From TPM Reader JB ...

Honestly, my dominant emotion on anticipating this inauguration is melancholy.

It is part of the American national character to imagine a new day, to believe as Ronald Reagan was so fond of saying that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again." Americans are perhaps alone among the world's peoples in believing this, and it may be more true here than it is anywhere else. But it is not entirely true even here,

I rate the symbolic value of Barack Obama's inauguration lower than most; to my mind symbolism without substance is for suckers, and we haven't seen substance from Obama yet. I reserve the right to revise my opinion later, and dearly hope I will be able to, but I cannot forget the staggering failures, the personal unworthiness and systemic decay that have made Obama's accession to the Presidency possible. The first half of the 20th century was a period of great hardship and devastating wars; that the period that succeeded it was marked by a general increase in prosperity and the spread of freedom throughout the world even in the shadow of the greatest threat mankind had ever known was largely due to American power and American leadership.

These trusts were inherited by the last administration and recklessly squandered. America's good name was sullied, her power diminished, and a lot of people got killed. However, it is not just the outgoing President and his administration that have let the country down. Congress, the very heart of the American system of government, has made itself less relevant to national policy, while decadence and corruption have pervaded a culture of a people more capable of seeing the potential of man than any other, but also one prone to conceit and empty self-congratulation.

These are heavy burdens to be inherited by the new President, and not burdens he ought to be expected to bear alone. His challenge, and ours, is a challenge we have made for ourselves, the greatest we have imposed on our own country since the war that almost destroyed it so long ago. I contemplate with melancholy the necessity of meeting that challenge, and the sorely limited resources I have at my disposal to ensure it is met successfully.

From TPM Reader RB ...

Ever since I saw Saturday's post asking for everyone's thoughts on what the inauguration means to each of us, I've been giving it some thought now and again. Initially, I kept coming back to the (almost by now hackneyed) thoughts of hope, optimism and the promise of a better government, alternating with sheer relief that the Bush administration is finally over with. But that struck me as rather obvious, and only touched the surface of what has been an emotionally and intellectually complex--for me, anyway--general election.

And then I read that Arlen Specter spoke in Philadelphia Saturday to help kick off Obama's whistle stop journey to D.C. I realized that when I read that, I immediately tensed up unhappily. My visceral, kneejerk reaction was one of almost anger at the idea that a republican would have such a high-profile presence at an event for a democratic president-elect. My president-elect. I paused to think about my reaction, and about why Obama invited Specter to speak at the event. I thought about his ideas on government expressed in Audacity of Hope. And I thought about why I'd grown so angry at all things republican, beginning in 1994, but really crystallizing over the last eight years. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that this kind of cooperation, the idea that we should work together without regard to party affiliation, is exactly what made Obama so compelling to me in the first place. Then I read the NYT piece detailing how Obama has reached out repeatedly to former rival McCain, and I had to catch myself to keep from having that same reaction. I had to remind myself that our government wasn't always about two competing parties, always at odds and always acrimonious. It's going to be a hard habit to shake off (for all of us, I imagine), but I finally realized that what this inauguration means to me is that we have an opportunity to truly put aside partisan rancor and focus on perfecting our union, and that feeling comes as a kind of happy relief. And that applies to all of us, not just the office holders in DC.

Today, on the eve of the inaugural, TPM is launching a new politics blog, TPMDC.com. It's the successor to TPM Election Central. Our team covering the Capital under the new administration will be Elana Schor, who joined our team earlier this month, covering Capitol Hill, Matt Cooper, formerly of Time, Newsweek, et al., covering the White House and the rest of the Obama administration and Eric Kleefeld, a veteran of our 2008 EC team, covering the political world from TPM Headquarters in NY.

First, let me welcome Matt Cooper to our TPM team (you can see his introductory post here). I've been a fan of Matt's for years. And we're excited to mix Matt's 20+ years of experience covering Washington, with all the insights and sources that entails, with the new approach to reporting we're working to create. We think both will add to the other.

We plan to hire one more reporter-blogger for the site; and David Kurtz and I will also be reporting and editing for the site.

The premise is simple. Though the phrase is endlessly overused, tomorrow is genuinely a new day in American politics. A new Democratic president, expanded Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate no longer encumbered by its earlier dependency on incumbency and legacy of solid South. And all of this beginning in a climate of genuine national crisis. We want to understand it. And we believe we are uniquely placed to chronicle the story.

As we have in every other project we've undertaken, we're doing this in partnership with you. We need your tips, your insights and your critiques. So if you're in the new administration, keep us posted on what you think is happening. And same to all of our reader-sources on Capitol Hill. And most importantly for our readers not residing within the Capital Beltway, we need your insights and perspective. We want to dig into the details of what's happening, understand the complexities and messiness of the city without becoming captive to its often insular mentality. In it but not of it.

On a personal note, TPM began just over eight years ago as a blog written from Washington. I moved to New York at the end of 2004. And it was from New York that we started growing TPM as an actual news outlet with multiple reporters in 2005. I'm still a little surprised at how much it's grown. And we have ambitious new plans for 2009.

So please visit the new site, take its measure, let us know your reactions and help us make it the best site covering the new Washington there is.

The Manifest Hope Exhibit is an art gallery open during the inauguration that gathers together an array of visual artwork all focused around our incoming president. TPMtv caught up with Shepard Fairey, the artist behind the iconic Obama "Hope" poster and asked him about the story behind the poster and his thoughts on the coming administration.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

So much is happening today. We hope to bring you an inauguration eve interview with Rep. Barney Frank later today and we're also going to be launching a new blog. But I just have to comment on how bizarre it is that the folks down at Gitmo are rushing to get through one more day of military tribunal hearings before President Obama presumably suspends or otherwise cuts short the process tomorrow. I did not realize it would be this surreal, literally getting in as much as they could until the very last minutes of the Bush presidency.

Remember too, President Bush has roughly 26 hours left to exercise the pardon power, whether the old-fashioned kind or those for crimes and liabilities in which he played a part. Taking the Gitmo stuff down to the wire is making me think he's going to put those remaining hours to good use.

Poetic justice alert: Displaced GOP political appointees struggling to find new jobs in abysmal labor market they helped create. That and the day's other political news in the TPM Election Central Morning Roundup.

We seem to be sweeping back around to the original TARP idea -- buying up the banks' 'toxic assets' to allow them to clear the decks and start lending again. It's not completely clear to me whether this is being pushed mainly by the carryover regulators like Sheila Bair who are trying to sell the idea to the Obama team or whether it's actually the Obama team that's now carrying this ball. But just as it was when this was Paulson's and Bernanke's idea back in the Fall, the whole premise is based on the idea that the US taxpayer buys these securities for far more than they're worth -- which we could do more honestly, if no more wisely, by just giving the banks a bunch of money to help them get back on their feet after losing so much money.

The tell is in the article that got this ball rolling in the Journal on Saturday (emphasis added): "Ms. Bair said the assets could be purchased at fair value, the figure banks use to value their own assets. Such a move would remove the challenge of placing a price on assets that rarely trade." In other words, buy these things at what the banks insist they're worth, even though everyone seems to recognize that the essence of the problem is that the banks are still sitting on massive losses they're still unwilling to account for. (The same article in the Journal notes a study which holds that the banks have so far accounted for only about half their losses.)

The lesson here is the one Orwell was teaching in his famous essay on language. Garbled language leads to garbled thinking and is an invitation to lying. "Toxic assets" is simply the buzz word for stuff banks bought for far more than it was worth. Period. All these buy-back schemes involve buying them for the price the banks want them to be worth.

It's like a scene out of some bizarro, Wall Streetified Antique Road Show. The bankers come in with their old china and cabinets from the attic that they're sure are worth $20,000. Sadly, the appraiser informs them they're only worth about $850. Only of course they're not from the attic. They bought them only last year convinced $20,000 was a steal back at the height of the antique crap craze. And now they're condemned to roam the byways of America looking for an appraiser or antique buyer who will finally recognize the true value of their crap and pay them $20,000 to help them get their money back. Unless of course we agree to pay them $20,000 for it now and let them get back to their lives and stop all the craziness.

I think we'll probably need to spend a lot more money unwinding the mess the banks got us into. But I don't see how this verbal nonsense is any more than a way to keep the shareholders of the banks whole.

Obama is unelectable.

Will Farrell is about to reprise his role/impersonation of President Bush in an intermissionless one man show on Broadway. "You're Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush."

From TPM Reader MH ...

I'm 53, from rural Virginia, and remember when black and white people didn't (wouldn't, couldn't) even sit down to eat together, so Obama's inauguration gives me a new perspective on a big, big part of my life --- so *this* is where we were headed, all that time. I wish I had known. At the same time, relief from the shame of the last eight years means relief from a kind of cynicism that was setting in. A student of mine said, "maybe we ARE the Great Satan!", and I had to wonder if he was right. Now I believe that American can do great things. I don't remember feeling that way before.

(ed.note: Through Tuesday evening TPM Readers are responding to Saturday's post asking what Tuesday's inauguration means to you. To join in, click the link for instructions on how to send in your email.)

Elana Schor reports from the scene of this afternoon's inauguration kick-off concert in DC:

Our TPMtv crew is in DC covering the inauguration festivities. Here's their first dispatch:

A new set of polls shows Barack Obama enjoying massive approval ahead of his inauguration -- and also shows that people really don't like George W. Bush. That and other political news in today's Election Central Sunday Roundup.

It's a bit of a flippant way to put it. But I keep marveling at this guy (itals added) ...

Meanwhile, the pilot of a crippled US Airways jet liner told investigators that he made a split-second decision to put down in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a "catastrophic" crash in a populated neighborhood.

Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger said that in the few minutes he had to decide where to set down the powerless plane Thursday afternoon, he felt it was "too low, too slow" and near too many buildings to go anywhere else, according to the National Transportation Safety Board account of his testimony.

...

The pilot said he tried to set down near a boat, to increase the possibility that survivors would be rescued, he told investigators. The aircraft hit close to several popular landings, and rescuers were able to arrive within minutes.