President Bush Inauguration

[micah_07]

This is a GREAT day to be an American!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so proud to live in the state that our GREAT President calls his home!

 

[CrimsonNan]

Yes, it IS a great day to be an American, and good for you Micah. :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

 

[Bamaro]

And a great day to be a corporate sponsor

 

[jthomas666]

This is a GREAT day to be an American!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Absolutely true. I feel that way regardless of who's in the White House.

 

[Displaced Bama Fan]

Personally, I could use a V-8.

 

[Piglet]

Every day is a great day to be an American. :cool2:

 

[Pachydermatous]

It was a swinging inauguration. For the parade I had to switch from Fox to C-SPAN. Fox insisted on splitting the screen and having Cavuto discuss politics with various experts, very annoying. I just wanted a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade report with descriptions of floats and bands.

I nearly fell out of my chair when one of the experts turned out to be boxing promoter Don King, Mike Tyson's old manager. Don was extremely effusive, praising the president to the skies. In closing his bit he predicted "George Bush will be the greatest president ever!" This naturally prompted the interviewer to ask if King was a Republican. But Don refused to name a party affiliation. He did say he votes for the man who does the greatest good for the people.

 

[TiderinVA]

I'm not sure how much coverage this got in the South

but I live about 50 miles south of DC and we get the DC local channels. I sometimes watch the local news on those stations and just about every night up til the inauguration, these tv stations would have a segment on the "protestors" and their childish and juvenile antics over the inauguration. I just wanted to scream "GET OVER IT!!! YOUR BOY LOST FAIR AND SQUARE!!!". I know, I know, 1st Amendment, blah, blah, blah but for God's sake, these folks need to get over it. Talk about sore losers.

I was never real happy that Bill Clinton won the election either time but I didn't spend my time obsessing over how to try to embarass or insult the man. The office of the Presidency deserves at least a shred of respect.

 

[bamabake]

Absolutely true. I feel that way regardless of who's in the White House.

Well said. Me too.

 

[CrimsonNan]

but I live about 50 miles south of DC and we get the DC local channels. I sometimes watch the local news on those stations and just about every night up til the inauguration, these tv stations would have a segment on the "protestors" and their childish and juvenile antics over the inauguration. I just wanted to scream "GET OVER IT!!! YOUR BOY LOST FAIR AND SQUARE!!!". I know, I know, 1st Amendment, blah, blah, blah but for God's sake, these folks need to get over it. Talk about sore losers.

I was never real happy that Bill Clinton won the election either time but I didn't spend my time obsessing over how to try to embarass or insult the man. The office of the Presidency deserves at least a shred of respect.

Look at it this way Tider, the protesters probably have an I.Q. lower than a snake. They don't know how to "get over it".

 

[blackumbrella]

peggy noonan's take

There were moments of eloquence: "America will not pretend that jailed dissidents prefer their chains, or that women welcome humiliation and servitude, or that any human being aspires to live at the mercy of bullies." "We do not accept the existence of permanent tyranny because we do not accept the possibility of permanent slavery." And, to the young people of our country, "You have seen that life is fragile, and evil is real, and courage triumphs." They have, since 9/11, seen exactly that.

And yet such promising moments were followed by this, the ending of the speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom."

This is--how else to put it?--over the top. It is the kind of sentence that makes you wonder if this White House did not, in the preparation period, have a case of what I have called in the past "mission inebriation." A sense that there are few legitimate boundaries to the desires born in the goodness of their good hearts.

One wonders if they shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not."

 

[Pachydermatous]

Peggy is looking at it with a professional eye. Speechwriters and the audience are two different critters. I've done a little in this particular craft and all I can compare it to is playwright and first night audience. Inbetween is the actor and the big show is on his shoulders.

 

[bandersnatch45]

Everybody in the hunting camp had the inaugural on tv or radio. much approval.

 

[Pachydermatous]

Peggy Noonan did overlook two important facets of Bush's address in these paragraphs:

"The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul."

It seemed a document produced by a White House on a mission. The United States, the speech said, has put the world on notice: Good governments that are just to their people are our friends, and those that are not are, essentially, not. We know the way: democracy. The president told every nondemocratic government in the world to shape up. "Success in our relations [with other governments] will require the decent treatment of their own people."

"We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." "Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self government. . . . Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time." "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world."

One must remember Bush's speech was directed not only at Americans and foreign nations, but also to our enemies among the Muslim crazies. The emphasis on God and religion was a direct slap at their cherished belief that we are the all-secular and decadent Great Satans of fantasy. It was also a prop for Muslim moderates, a reminder that we, too, share similar beliefs and are not about to abnegate those beliefs.

The next two paragraphs are no less than a second declaration of war on the crazies and the tyrannical religio-crats of Islam. There is nothing they fear and hate more than the spread of democracy and Western ideas. Peggy and most others may have missed the significance of these words, but you can bet that Osama and his buddies did not.

 

[bandersnatch45]

"We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." "Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self government. . . . Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time." "It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world."

Yep, this guy thinks big. Most folks can't wrap their heads around such large ideas.