Attending the 2009 Presidential Inauguration

“He is certainly the worst president in my lifetime.”

This entry isn’t posted by hand, it is one I scheduled ten days in advance of the inauguration ceremony—and it is written with George Wallace Bush in mind. It should be viewable right before the transition of power.

It is my sincere and non-cynical wish that Mr. Bush is able to leave office with honor and peace. I hope when I’m on the National Mall that I don’t see people throwing things or shouting at our departing president. We all saw that guy in Iraq throw his shoes at him—so I hope we can let this go and move on with dignity.

“It can get edgy out there.”

I don’t know how Bush plans to physically leave the White House. In 1974, Nixon was escorted to a helicopter on the White House lawn to keep clear of Pennsylvania Avenue altogether. In 1981, Carter spent his last 48 hours awake negotiating the release of the hostages in Iran, only to have the hostages freedom secured moments after Reagan was sworn in (making it appear as if Reagan’s inaugural was the sole reason for their release). Reagan had planned to congratulate Carter on his accomplishment during his inaugural speech, but didn’t want to do it unless the hostages were 100% free and clear of the captors. It can get edgy out there.

Bush is already seen by many of his contemporaries as the worst president in America’s history. I don’t know presidential history well enough to sign off on that. He is certainly the worst president in my lifetime. But life has a funny way of turning around. Carter left office politically down, but is still the most effective and constructive post president we have. I hope Bush’s many failures inspire him to “re-invent himself” and mend some of the many things he’s damaged. It’s possible.

A thought for George

“How could we have expected any really progress or leadership out of these clowns?”

You know what, we’ve had a long rough stretch with these presidents of the last 30 years. I never really thought about how bad it’s been until writing up all these election reviews.

Since Jimmy Carter left office, it’s been one psychological soap opera after the other. Is it any surprise that we are still nowhere with health care, that our economy is so cavernously-cracked we can’t even guess where the bottom might be, that Florida could be an ocean in the not so distant future, and that we’ve taken to torture and unprovoked wars? How could we have expected any really progress or leadership out of these clowns?

When Carter was president, we had solar panels on the White House. Reagan immediatly took them down—and they still are nowhere to be seen. That was some real insight on Reagan’s part, hugh, that we’d rather be handcuffed to the Middle East for energy than to produce our own. It seems like electric cars have been invented several times since then, but they always mysteriously disappear. America’s spirit of invention has been silenced by lobbyists.

But we can only blame ourselves for voting these jokers in and then expecting nothing more significant out of them than their next psychological dysfunction played out on the world’s stage.

What happened to us? Did we all start getting too into WWF Wrestling and decided our leaders should be like that too? Were we in some kind of sadistic phase of denial? Was it all just a string of bad luck? Whatever it was, for the moment it’s finally done. For a few years, we’ll have leaders of decent and honorable character, and we should be able to right this ship with their efforts and our own.

“Don’t hide that Hussein”

You don’t have to use your middle name when taking the oath of office, but I hope Obama does. Recently, Jimmy was sworn in as Jimmy Carter, Ronnie was sworn in as Ronald Reagan, and Jerry was sworn in as Gerald R. Ford. But Barack, don’t hide that Hussein, ’cause that was your papa’s middle name.

“Washington presidential politics was looking a lot like a Harlem Globetrotters vs Washington Generals game.”

Reagan vs Mondale
If Old Enough to Vote: um…Mondale (motivated by severe Reagan angst)
My Conscience: Nobody
My Conscience in the Democratic Primary: John Glenn, then Gary Hart

Impressions Heading into Election Day
Reagan: His world was more of a circus than I imagined it would be, though I respected him for coming out of the shooting as strongly as he did (but the incident unfortunately gave him great political leeway during his increasing mental decline).
Mondale: Reminded me of a library administrator you really don’t want to know anything about, and I knew that politically he was nothing more than a roadkill offering to landslide #2.

Reagan: 59% and 525 electoral
Mondale: 41% and 13 electoral

Looking Back: Mondale didn’t do a single thing to stop or slow the growing Republican machine and the momentum of their political philosophy now sweeping the populace. If anything, this limp candidacy offered up by the Democrats gave a “Bad News Bears” loser vibe to the party. Washington presidential politics was looking a lot like a Harlem Globetrotters vs Washington Generals game.

Election Map: Reagan’s election map was everything except Minnesota. I remember thinking that Mondale should be allowed to be president of Minnesota. Wouldn’t really affect the rest of the country much; winning just one state should make such an arrangement easy logistically.

“I couldn’t believe America had voted in a landslide for such a freak show.”

Reagan vs Carter vs Anderson
If Old Enough to Vote: Wouldn’t have voted
My Conscience: Nobody
My Conscience in the Democratic Primary: Carter. Ted Kennedy seemed cheesy to me at the time.

Impressions Heading into Election Day
Carter: I didn’t like that he boycotted the Olympics. All that training for those athletes down the tube, and for what?
Reagan: Yikes! How I imagine people to act when recovering from amnesia (theirs or mine). Also seemed to be overcompensating from some past failure or unresolved problem with a parent. For those who remember the Nixon era more than myself, y’all had been down this road, but I hadn’t.
Anderson: Somebody is going to have to explain this guy to me, if anybody remembers him. How he came from nowhere to 7% of the vote then right back to nowhere is pretty amazing. It’s hard to even find a picture of him now, but either he reminded me of Phil Donahue, or later Phil Donahue reminded me of him.

Reagan: 51% with 489 electoral
Carter: 41% with 49 electoral
Anderson: 7% with 0 electoral

Looking Back: Politics changed for me on election night as a sea of red overtook the state’s election returns. I felt guilty that I didn’t stand behind Jimmy just because of the Olympic boycott. I then decided I was a Democrat, or at least would be for a while, because I couldn’t believe America had voted in a landslide for such a freak show.

Election Map: Reagan’s election map was just about everything except Georgia, West Virginia, and a few other states.