Yes, we can.

[Strangler Lewis]

As I told my mother, who gets all of her issues, good and bad, from conservative talk radio, this is one of those issues on which Obama would be dumped on no matter what he did. If he had put on a low frills bash, he'd have been criticized for demeaning the high office of the presidency and bringing down the morale of the country at a difficult time.

[Alex]

So is the criticism about money or about putting on a big party while at war? (I just noticed you added to your post while I was responding to it, but the segment you quoted is about extravagant displays during war.)

[scaeagles]

Please be clear I have no criticism of the events, as I think I stated. I have always (as is known here) seen the mainstream media as having a left wing bias, and i think the lavishness of the Obama inauguration - now thought to be almost 4 times as expensive as the 2005 - being given not nearly the same scrutiny as a President they all despised (well, most of them did). It's "we like Obama, so spending lot of money is OK".

I fear that no matter what happens during the Obama administration will be glossed over as acceptable becuase they like him.

Another example is whomever his choice is for Secretary of the Treasury...the man did not make honest mistakes, IMO. He dodged paying taxes. However, I am not aware of calls for him to withdraw the nomination.

Strangler, politics is such that of course that will happen, and it happened to Bush all the time.

I've been withholding numerous ciriticsms of Obama and the dems at present....this is just fluff, and a jab at the media and particular elected members of Congress who were so vocal in their opposition to the money spent in 2005, not Obama.

[JWBear]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

I fear that no matter what happens during the Obama administration will be glossed over as acceptable becuase they like him.

Just like the "liberal" media glossed over every wrong doing by Bush?

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Please be clear I have no criticism of the events, as I think I stated. I have always (as is known here) seen the mainstream media as having a left wing bias, and i think the lavishness of the Obama inauguration - now thought to be almost 4 times as expensive as the 2005 - being given not nearly the same scrutiny as a President they all despised (well, most of them did). It's "we like Obama, so spending lot of money is OK".
Bush all the time.

Actually, according to this article at least, the mainstream media's math is a little off. It would appear that they included all of the security costs into the 2009 number, but failed to do so in the 2005 numbers. Do that and it turns out that this event didn't cost anywhere near four times what was spent in 2005. But those fair and balanced folks at the NY Daily News weren't quite so interested in accuracy when they first broke this "story" which everybody picked up without checking the facts.

[wendybeth]

Thanks for the link, MBC.

[Alex]

Yes, thanks.

So current estimates are that the Obama inauguration will cost $3 more than Bush's. I guess we're just left with the hypocrisy of two congressional Democrats not complaining about it.

[Gemini Cricket]

Gene Robinson's invocation:

Following is the text of the invocation given by Bishop V. Gene Robinson at the opening ceremonies of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration Sunday, January 18th. Robinson delivered the prayer at the base of the Lincoln Memorial facing a crowd nearly a million people strong that filled a stretch of the National Mall all the way to the base of the Washington Monument.
Good afternoon,
Before this celebration begins, please join me in pausing for a moment to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
Oh God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears, tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die a day from malnutrition, malaria and AIDS.
Bless this nation with anger – anger at discrimination at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants; women, people of color; gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort at the easy simplistic answers we prefer to hear from our politicians instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed any time soon and the understanding that our next president is a human being, not a messiah. Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.
Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the ways we care for the most vulnerable. And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office fo the president of the United States. Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for all people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady calm captain. Give him stirring words, we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color blind reminding him of his own words that under his leadership there will be neither red nor blue states but a United States. Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him strength to find family time and privacy and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods. And please God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents and we’re asking far too much of this one, we implore you oh good and great God to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand that he might do the work that we have called him to do. That he might find joy in this impossible calling and that, in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
Amen.

[innerSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Gene Robinson's invocation:

Thanks for posting that. HBO failed to broadcast that part of the Lincoln Memorial kick-off festivivites. A "snafu" in communication with the inauguration team about what to include in their coverage.

Pfft. Ha!



The new conspiracies start.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Alex

Yes, thanks.

So current estimates are that the Obama inauguration will cost $3 more than Bush's. I guess we're just left with the hypocrisy of two congressional Democrats not complaining about it.

No - not entirely. Even if the cost was exactly the same (which I don't necessarily subscribe to - I admit to not having read the media matters article, but I regard them in a similar fashion to how many of you might view Nation Review Online), there is still the issue of what was indeed a general feeling of disgust by many in the media that so much was being spent on the festivities. What it comes down to is simply that those members of the media are happy this time and wish to celebrate and cover celebrations, and in 2005 they did not.