Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Good luck, Mr. President

I watched the inauguration this morning.

Let me rephrase that.

I watched the new President’s daughters this morning. Oh my gawd, how cute are they?! There was one point when Tim and I were laughing because it so totally looked like Sasha was getting a little antsy and Michelle was saying in that sweet way we moms do under these circumstances, “Honey, you need to settle down right.now because this not O.K., are you listening to me? Do not make me raise my voice, sweetheart…sit up and be-HAVE.” {smile! kisses!}

Of course, their Sasha is our Boo Bug’s age. OK, OK, she’s six months older. And Malia is three months younger than Eldest that is not the point. The point is (oh, there was one?) that perhaps we were projecting what would have been happening if those had been our kids up there on that stage.

Eldest would, yes, have been fiddling with a camera or iPhone or something, recording everything. If we hadn’t given her a camera, she’d’ve been all, “Can’t I bring my Gameboy? Siiiiiiiiiiigh…this stuff is so booooooooring…{eye roll eye roll eye roll}” –she would have been gracious while in public, followed by more {eye roll eye roll eye roll} siiiiiiiiiiiigh once she got us home.

And Boo Bug would have been twitchy, especially if it were at all cold or if there were interesting people around. Plus also, she is a talker-girl. A mile-a-minute and changing subjects with little or no warning kind of talker-girl. The only warning you get that the subject may be changing is a breathless, “An’ you know what else?”

Getting her to not only sit still, but still and not putting several oars into the conversation? Whew. That’s a Herculean task for you, right there.

ANYWAY. I did manage to pull myself together enough to listen to his inaugural address. I’m not going to pick apart content because, dudes, seriously?, there are way more than enough people doing that, already. Better qualified people, too.

So I’ll just content myself with saying that it feels absolutely awesome to have a President who is an orator. A man with not merely an impressive command of our language, but the ability to deliver it to the waiting ears of the masses in a way that keeps them listening.

Even if the words are basically saying “rough road ahead.”

This is in stark contrast to some (perhaps many or even most) previous presidents, who couldn’t deliver the news that you’d just won the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes in a way that didn’t make you want to throw something at him.

Good luck, Mr. President. This is a mighty big herd of cats you’ve been elected to drive toward better times – we’re rooting for you out here in the Den of Chaos.

4 comments:

natasha the exile on Mom Street said...

Amen.

mama edge said...

As Michelle Obama once said (and got totally reamed for by the pundits): For the first time in my life I am really proud to be an American. President Obama (love to type that!) is a true leader, and we've never needed a leader more than we do now.

dale-harriet said...

I couldn't agree more, m'dear. Have you noticed? In comments all over Blogland people are using words like "proud", "hopeful", "inspired" -- and pointing out that our *President* (I love typing that too - when was the last time you could say that?) is eloquent, elegant; I don't like Ashton Kucher {blech} BUT - he made perhaps the best comment of all: "I've seen Presidents hand the torch off to Presidents; now I've seen the President hand the torch off to the people." And I think we're all here ready and willing to take it! Good times, good times.

Rena said...

I'm elated that we have a president who has actually READ the Constitution. And understands it! He can even SPELL the word.

Some one qualified? No way!