If you were disappointed with Barack Obama's inaugural address, Jonathan Raban has written an insightful article that might cheer you up. Here's an excerpt:
I've read - or at least skimmed - every inaugural address since George Washington's, and none comes close to so categorically rejecting the political philosophy and legislative record of the previous occupant of the White House. Obama did it by stealth - so much stealth that most of the red meat of the speech has so far passed largely unnoticed. The most astonishing visual moment of the inauguration came after the speech, and Elizabeth Alexander's dud poem ("On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp . . .", mistaking her thesaurus for her muse), and the Rev Joseph Lowery's magnificent, scene-stealing benediction, when Obama and his wife Michelle walked George W and Laura Bush to the US Marine helicopter parked beside the Capitol's west portico. The two couples joked, then hugged, before the Bushes climbed aboard, on their way to Midland, Texas. It was like seeing Mark Antony and Brutus locked in a warm embrace after "Friends, Romans, countrymen . . ."
It's a long, but interesting piece that's well worth reading: The golden trumpet.
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