Inauguration Day

As they keep telling us ad nauseam on the television, today is an historic day for America. A little after 12:00 P.M. EST, the first African-American President was sworn in. I have no doubts that this will be a day long remembered in the annals of time, regardless of how Barack Obama actually performs over the next four years. I would describe myself as a moderate conservative, if anything, but I'm willing to give the new guy a chance. It's probably a bad thing for any one party to have full control for too long, anyway. Looking over the sea of faces in the Washington Mall, there to celebrate the changing of the guard, I have to give in to at least a little hope for the future. Of course, my cynical side also has to wonder just what--exactly--the predominant portion of that audience was there to celebrate. "Change"? The culmination of MLK's speech some forty years ago? A politician whom the mass media has taught them to love? I dunno. I doubt a poll of that audience's political beliefs (and their knowledge of Obama's) would return very fruitful results. But I could be wrong.