Countdown Monday: Inauguration Eve
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2009 8:59 PM by Countdown
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Blogging the Countdown
Almost Here: Inheriting a nation at war on two fronts...as well as a financial crisis. At least one stimulus plan already seeming to have been put into action... even before Mister Obama takes the oath of office at Noon tomorrow on the steps of the Capitol behind me: Our fifth story on the Countdown: For all the grim reality, it is as if a grimmer one still has been removed, exorcised... As if a storm has broken, and for whatever the devastation, now, at long last, the clean-up and the repair, can finally begin.
Lincoln Thinkin': "We have nothing to fear but fear itself...""Ask not what your country can do for you, Ask what you can do for your country..." "The better angels of our nature." That last quotation, of course, from Lincoln's first inaugural address. But in our fourth story on the Countdown: It is Lincoln's second inaugural speech which appears to be inspiring -- and intimidating -- President-elect Obama on the eve of his own inauguration.
Inauguration Anticipation: Despite all the democratic talk of change...Despite all the Republican rhetoric about measuring of drapes. The President-Elect is going to keep... the oval office decor. Including Laura Bush's rug. Our third story on the Countdown, the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Worsties...see below.
WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: Ken Blackwell, Ben Baldanza and Wendell Goler vie for tonight's top honors.
Special Comment on Torture: Finally tonight as promised, a Special Comment about the President-Elect, the soon-to-be President-Emeritus, torture, and its prosecution. We have tortured people. You and I. This is the people's democracy, we are the people, these are our elected officials. That they did not come to us and ask to act thusly in our names is unfortunate, indeed criminal, but it is also almost irrelevant. They work for us, they tortured people, and so...we have tortured people. You and I know we have tortured Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. We not only know about it; we have now heard it boasted about by one of the men who as of tomorrow will no longer work for us: George Walker Bush.
