Obama-palooza

Welcome back to your Internet destination for breaking news. Today's gem: Barack Obama is about to be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.

You may have heard this, just as you may have heard about the tremendous Inauguration "We Are One" Concert held on the National Mall yesterday. I get to go to a lot of cool events/games in DC with press passes but yesterday's show was completely different, starting with the fact that I had no connections for any press passes, basically I was on my own to brave the cold, the crowd, and the unknown.

So off I went yesterday with a hangover, semi-plan of where I was going, and a screwdriver (the liquid kind); this weekend in DC has been like a cold, more mature version of Spring Break. The only things I was lacking was a Snuggie and one of those Amish Fireless Fire Places. I had low expectations, was mostly interested in hearing the Boss, and then getting out for the end of the Eagles/Cardinals game.

I couldn't have been more wrong about it all... except for the Snuggie part, one of those really would have been tremendous. First, I was shockingly underwhelmed by Bruce. Maybe it was the cold open he had to endure but something wasn't right. Another mistake I made was thinking that lacking a credential would be ruinous. Being in the mobs was refreshing. Its corny and cliche but we met out of towners, ran into friends, and enjoyed strangers we usually would complain about.

The show gained momentum with almost every performance, but that wasn't what I'll remember. Obama-stock ranks up there with the 2002 Patriots SuperBowl Parade and the Pope's funeral as huge rally moments that surpass all others. Each event has been driven by human emotion. For the Pats rally it was a sense of accomplishment, for the Pope it was overwhelming grief, and yesterday it was a massive celebration. There was camaraderie, pride, brotherhood, and patriotism; the things you often hear in Americana verse and so seldom witness in person.

That was the overwhelming revelation for me, the sheer bliss of those in attendance. It wasn't a celebration of the end of eight Bush years and it wasn't just a grand homage to Obama. The gathering seemed more like an epidemic of excitement, a new hope rushing through the crowd. The performers preached it all day, but I would argue the buzz was a grass roots thing. An imminent belief that we could have a direct impact, that change was up to us, that the torch was being passed on; symptoms of the Obama Effect. Maybe everyone didn't feel that way but enough people did, and in the end, it was contagious enough to create the weird euphoria.

So much so that all day there was a distinct absence of cold weather complaints, of line cutting and pushing, and personal squabbles. In a city built on systematic strife and constant debate, it was invigorating to miss it. I walked, possibly floated back to the GW campus and reality for an afternoon of football. At McFaddens, the scene couldn't have been a bigger juxtaposition. As people shouted, stressed, and shoved through the bar, I sat in the back, like Andy Dufresne in the Shawshank yard, physically feet away and cerebrally miles away.