Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Update

The Daily Dude was among the million or so present at today's historic inauguration of Barack Obama, and he can report that ex-President Bush was greeted by a roundhouse of jeers and boos from the crowd as he was introduced to the crowd.

The Hill's Briefing Room has also reported that the crowd packed on the west side of the Capitol grounds serenaded President Bush in mocking fashion when he took to the inaugural stage alongside Vice President Dick Cheney.

"Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye," a section of the crowd chanted.

Even the ticketed crowd seated immediately below the podium received Bush in stony silence when he took his seat on the stage surrounding the podium where Barack Obama took the oath office.

The jeers are among the final public feedback Bush will receive as president-- he is leaving office with an historically low 22% approval rating.

UPDATE: Various reports have come in about unexpected bridge and Metro station closures, etc. The Daily Dude can report that the 14th Street bridge was temporarily closed for a 30-45 minute period around 8 or 9 am this morning-- but early on, things looked to be going smoothly. At around 9:15 am, officials (as expected) closed off entry to the parade route (due to the size of the crowd already assembled there). There were also reports of thousands of ceremony ticket holders who were stuck in line in the 3rd street tunnel for over 4 hours without safety or security officers at the scene, and who eventually were shut out of the event altogether. During the ceremony, there were also several technical glitches with the audio which resulted in the Jumbotron video going out of sync with the audio coming from the speakers. If you just closed your eyes and listened to Barack's words however, the speech came through with even more emotional impact.

No comments: