Andrew Spittle

Boston.com has a great photo essay of photos of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States. Some of the photos from around the world are just amazing. I think that my favourite is the one taken of Former President Bush inside the Presidential Helicopter. See the photos here.

Interesting story on The Plank that examines Obama’s evocation of George Washington in his address. From the article:

But the most interesting thing about Obama’s use of George Washington in his speech is how differently these two political figures — the Washington of history, that is, and the Obama of the campaign — are perceived. Obama ran as a transformer, a “change agent,” and liked to drop the phrase “new birth” in reference to his political project. I got the sense this idea then galloped away from him, and he became irritated with the ensuing assumption that a Prez BHO would radically overhaul the country. But he was always seen, nevertheless, as a politician in the mold of Reagan or Lincoln (from whom, of course, the idea of a “new birth” for the country originates), and not of Washington, who made himself out as the opposite of transformative.

Washington resisted (if feebly) the early impulse to turn him into a Mosaic figure. His own First Inaugural begins in a sort of frantic lather of humility: “The magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called me, being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens a distrustful scrutiny into his qualifications, could not but overwhelm with despondence one who (inheriting inferior endowments from nature and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration) ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies …” It was Washington who established the model of the president as a humble caretaker of the Republic, not its reshaper. He was widely seen in his day not as the most brilliantly clever man around, but as the one with the most unquestionable integrity, the kind of doorman (to use a crude analogy) you can leave your most precious jewelry with when you go away on vacation.

Link via Why’d Obama Talk About George Washington? – The Plank .

For a slightly more critical and negative look at Obama’s inauguration speech check out the link below. Interesting points and one’s that are quite valid despite the fact that I think the speech is better than this writer thinks.

Barack Obama’s Speech: A Disappointing Hodgepodge – The Plank .

Whitehouse.gov got a fitting update today for the newly inaugurated Obama administration. After poking through it for a bit I’ve written down my initial thoughts here.

• The Homepage: Very well done. I like the 4 featured articles/pages that are toward the top of the page. The navigation here (and throughout the site) is also quite good. Overall, it is made relatively easy for one to find information quickly and efficiently. Seems fitting with the larger claim that this administration will be the most transparent and accountable in history.
• The Blog: That’s right, whitehouse.gov now has a blog. When I initially read about this I was extremely excited, but after a first look it appears to be underwhelming. While so much of the site (as well as Obama’s campaign site and transition site) were amazingly well designed the blog page just seems crowded and poorly thought out. The text is done in a way that is just plain. While plain text can certainly work it needs to be made clear what parts of the page are article headers, article summaries, etc. For me the blog just fails as presenting information in a clear and thoughtful way.

That’s it for now, perhaps there will be more at a later date.

An article on TNR today quotes another that says:

According to Andrea, “we are witnessing a sociological paradigm shift where a loving black nuclear family is the new definition of cool.”

The hope for Andrea and women like her is that the crowd of eligible and educated black men in Washington this weekend “will be reminded that smart, driven, nurturing black women have always been—and will always be—the business.”

Another, perhaps surprising, side effect of the search for one’s very own Barack Obama is the actual shrinking of expectations among black women. The 44th president of the United States, after all, started his political career as a community organizer. Today he’d be making around $30,000 a year, according to Salary.com.

“Michelle met Barack when he was ‘low’ on the totem pole,” said Naima. “He had a studio apartment and a beat-up car, but they clearly saw the potential in each other.”

Personally, I’m pretty skeptical of this whole “Obama as an agent of social change” thing. I get that there is this potential for the President to inspire and affect great periods of social change (after all, look at what Bush and the religious right accomplished in the last 8 years), but I tend to agree with one of the commenters who points out that much of the same things were said about “The Cosby Show” back in the day which didn’t amount to much actual change. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how it progresses though.

Link via Obama as Social Model – The Plank .

There’s an interesting article on Daily Kos about Washington’s D.C.’s famous U Street Corridor. Home of Duke Ellington this was a center of jazz and culture for years but since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. has seen some rough times. It sounds as though the area is improving though now. Interesting read.

Link via It’s an Obama Street Party on Black Broadway