I was struck and sometimes moved by the peaceful, joyous transfer of power witnessed today.
I was at my desk both watching the live CNN broadcast and talking by phone to John Goodwin and Bill Lewis from our staff who got on a bus at midnight to travel the "Trip of a Lifetime" with a church group traveling to our nation's capital to witness history.
And as the editors worked our plan to bring the inauguration home both in print on with continuous live updates on our Web site, every so often I'd take a moment to catch the festivities. And as I saw President Obama and his wife walking joyously down the parade route to the White House and listened to the cheers of happy Americans, my mind wandered back eight years.
Was the same parade route taken by President Bush 11 weeks after the controversial 2000 election really as much of a contrast as I recalled?
A quick google tonight found a treasure trove of bad memories and the news guy in me spent a few moments reliving the beginning of the last awful eight years. I don't know whether they were made awful by President Bush or by happenstance, but the point is they started out bad and never really recovered, save for a few weeks of unity following the worst terrorist attack on our nation (and if those are the good ol' days, I've made my point).
The Iraq War? The stock market? The Bill of Rights? Haliburton? The treatment of our vets? Jobs? The environment? New Orleans?
Feeling good about any of these topics?
So, following my daily admonishment stolen from George Santayana and/or Winston Churchill that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, here are a few quick snippets from this day eight years ago.
Look how far we've come.
God bless, America!
More later,
Mark
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