Barack Obama's Inaugural Train Ride
In the thousands they came Saturday, alone or as families, bundled against the arctic cold, jumping, waving, and screaming out as the silver train with the blue caboose whizzed by. In their hands they held posters, magazine covers, cameras, flags and hand-made signs. "Fired Up," said one. "We Did It," went another. "Happy Birthday Michelle," read a third. A scattered few stood with toddlers clutching a pant leg, the bundled children learning what it's like to watch history happen.
Inside Barack Obama's private train to the 56th Inauguration of a President of the United States, the victor schmoozed and made jokes. "You are never too old," he said, when asked about joy of tooting the train's horn as it passed from Philadelphia through Wilmington and Baltimore to the nation's capital. Joe Biden, his running mate, had jokes too. "Now look, you tell the president how important it is to fund Amtrak," he announced, as he walked into one of the dining cars, where Obama was shooting the breeze with some supporters and his wife, Michelle, who was celebrating her 45th birthday. (Later in the day, in another train car, a group of children, likely including Sasha and Malia Obama, wore party hats under a "Happy Birthday" sign.)
At the whistle stop rallies, people shed tears--whole groups who had been shivering for hours so they could stand close to the stage. In Baltimore's War Memorial plaza, the city's Deputy Fire Chief estimated the crowd at 40,000, in air that froze toes through shoes and stung at exposed cheeks. "It's great to have a president that understands all this is bigger than him," said Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, in introduction. "The optimism, you can see it in the faces of your neighbors," added the state's governor, Martin O'Malley.
In his three addresses, Obama spoke of history and transformation. "What is required is a new Declaration of Independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives, from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry, an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels," he said. Someone called to him from the crowd, and he looked away from the teleprompter. "I love you back," he shouted. The crowd exploded with approval. Two blocks away, people had filled the balconies of a high-rise apartment building to glimpse their next president.
All along the train route, police cordoned off bridges and underpasses, stringing yellow police tape to hold back the onlookers, who sometimes gathered by the hundreds, and sometimes by the handful. A couple waved from their back porch. A man and a child stood in a field. Another watched alone on the roof of a delivery truck. At least one marching band gathered in uniform. Most days, the views from the commuter train tracks that pass between Philadelphia and Washington D.C. are not such a site to behold. In winter, it's a dun patchwork of barren trees, industrial lots with rusted-out factories, and simple, sometimes blighted neighborhoods, burdened by overgrown lots and vacant buildings.
But on this day, many of those neighborhoods came to life. Most people could only see Obama's train for a matter of seconds. It rarely slowed, and Obama only stepped outside the caboose to wave on a few occasions. But none of this seemed to dent the enthusiasm of the crowds. They cheered as if the train was coming to see them, as if Obama's victory had been their victory, and it was only now just beginning. For miles and miles, for people in dress coats and work clothes, it was the same--Americans literally jumping for joy over a president who has changed his country without yet taking office.
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Obama will enter office with the most bipartisan support and genuine hope and optimism in his efforts of any president sworn into office in this country's history. Today's historic and crowd-pleasing train ride will only serve to bolster that support. He sure knows how to play to a crowd - in this case the entire nation.
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I've voted in every election since Nixon and haven't been this exicted about getting a new president. The bubbly is in the refrigerator and I'm hoping the cork makes a dent in the ceiling when I pop it. I'd like to be reminded of the inaguration every time I look up.
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Michael, nicely written piece, thanks.
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sacredh:
Bravo. Champagne is just the ticket on inauguration day. In the midst of such daily bad news and world turmoil have I been filled with such a sense of...potential...of optimism.
Seems like such a dichotomy, yes?
But your idea of denting the ceiling with a champagne cork is a marvelous way of remembering this historic and potentially world-changing presidency.
I for one will join you. No doubt my husband will too. So that may be two champagne dents in the ceiling to remember this day by.
Onward and upward, people. It's a new day. And I for one am heartily grateful for the opportunity to help our new president and his administration make this country the best that it can be.
Now there's a toast for the new year, yes?
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Really, nice little piece, Michael. I do like the rhetorical flourish on this kind of topic.
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.(OT!!! PREVIEW!!!!oneone!!! Thanks High Sheriffs!!!!)
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Nice piece, MS.
Amazing really!
For a while, I thought that you had your measly heart in it.
Nah. -
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"What is required is a new Declaration of Independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives, from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry, an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels,"
From a man steepeed in "ideology" this connent is a little bloated.
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Less "e's" and more "m's" would make sense, maybe
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arkietwo Says:
" .. From a man steepeed in "ideology" this connent is a little bloated. ."He may be partial to a certain ideological camp: That is how elections are won in USA. Ask any third party or no party candidate. After all the intrigue and fanfare, items on the party platforms are often forgotten soon after the presidential elections.
.Should there be a total disconnect among us between what separates us into 'ideological' camps and what we aspire to as one nation? The last 8 year suggest that there shouldn't be and that we are in it together: The current economic recession/ financial meltdown and the national shame we experience as a result of the Iraq/Afghanistan wars are hurting all Americans. Be useful. Try this: Come up with ways - say executive action points - in which you can hold him to the declaration. What actions do you want him to commit himself to in order to either achieve those lofty ideals or for us, in our lifetime, to see our nation well on its way towards achieving them?
.Is the "ideology" of the democratic party incapable of addressing issues regarding prejudice and bigotry?
Do the democrats only appeal to Rush Limbaugh's and Ann Coulter's worst angels? Maybe, since that is the only flavor they seem to have been blessed with.
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A lot worse than a train to nowhere - it's an express direct to the Third World for the USA. We will have a President who is PROUD that he supported allowing an insane dictator to continue with genocide - who is PROUD that he supported the Terrorists who murdered 4,000 American soldiers in Iraq - who is PROUD that he would have abandoned the Iraqis the same way his Liberal antecedents abandoned the Vietnamese - and will soon do the same with the Afghanis - and who will one day PROUDLY dedicate another meaningless black death shrine to the soldiers he made sure died for nothing. Reverend Wright was right - God Damn Obama's America.
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I never leave comments, ever. But you must know, that was very well written sir.
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Imagine how many of the hundreds of thousands in Washington on Tuesday would have been happier to join the 1500 in Edgewood, Md yesterday.
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Great to have preview back, and you can read in preview as you type, instead of going to a different screen. It's nice to have something work better in the new format than it did in the old. -
13
Americans literally jumping for joy over a president who has changed his country without yet taking office.
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MS,
Nice writing.
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I think its important to note that Obama isn't changing the coutry so much as he's reflecting the change that's taking place anyway. The philosophy of fear, hatred and demonization that seemed so unstoppable a mere six years ago has given way to one of hope, tolerance and above all, thoughtfulness. -
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jkantor,
glad to see that Bellvue has internet access. Swallow your pills, and the orderly will let you have butterscotch pudding for dessert.
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kantor267 Says:
Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 4:29 am
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The time of the post suggests someone just might have been in their cups.
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Nicely written MS. I just saw the very end when they arrived in DC. As they were ready to get off the train Sasha started to walk out before everyone. PEBO held her back and she laughed and punched him.
Pretty cute. -
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Michael, very nicely written. Thank you.
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Paul D #13 - yep, to an extent. But he is clearly bringing a different tone to DC that has improved the tone of a fair number of RW types, including McConnell. A good thing.
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Oh, and, to jkantor267 - pointing and laughing ha ha ha ha ha ha! -
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as a citizen of philadelphia, may I just say how sick and tired I am with Presidents using my city as a backdrop for PR stunts. Every time a president shows up here, they completely disrupt traffic -- its a real pain in the butt!
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Someone has commented that this blog is, "...nice writing...", it's more than nice writing. It's a tour de force of what TIME does best. It's a judgment of & a comment on what BH Obama & America has become. It points with pride at us & anticipates what we & Obama may become. No one may be sure of the future but Time's usual fudging is muted. We have a new leader for the very difficult times ahead. We & Obama are bound to be changed by the unpleasent realities all of us must face; but the blog said it better. I'll close.
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And we must never, never disrupt traffic by special events!
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You should go over to Outside the Beltway, Paul, where everyone is airing their hard little knots of resentment over the train ride.
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Kathy, unfortunately it doesn't work well on longer posts - including ones where you quote a lot. It becomes incredibly slow (at least on my computer).
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MS, good post.
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This is a strange moment: Optimism and triumph mixed with dread over the economy and America's place in the world. I don't think it will last long, but it all seems quite extraordinary while it does. -
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Thank you Mike. Great piece!
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rose83
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Ironically today Krugman weighed in about the convo we were having yesterday about tax cuts. He actually put out a comprehensive plan for Obama in Rolling Stone which is what i was hoping he would do.
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http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/25456948/what_obama_must_do/3
.You can also do well by doing good. The Americans hit hardest by the slump — the long-term unemployed, families without health insurance — are also the Americans most likely to spend any aid they receive, and thereby help sustain the economy as a whole. So aid to the distressed — enhanced unemployment insurance, food stamps, health-insurance subsidies — is both the fair thing to do and a desirable part of your short-term economic plan.
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Even if you do all this, however, it won't be enough to offset the awesome slump in private spending. So yes, it also makes sense to cut taxes on a temporary basis. The tax cuts should go primarily to lower- and middle-income Americans — again, both because that's the fair thing to do, and because they're more likely to spend their windfall than the affluent. The tax break for working families you outlined in your campaign plan looks like a reasonable vehicle.
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But let's be clear: Tax cuts are not the tool of choice for fighting an economic slump. For one thing, they deliver less bang for the buck than infrastructure spending, because there's no guarantee that consumers will spend their tax cuts or rebates. As a result, it probably takes more than $300 billion of tax cuts, compared with $200 billion of public works, to shave a point off the unemployment rate. Furthermore, in the long run you're going to need more tax revenue, not less, to pay for health care reform. So tax cuts shouldn't be the core of your economic recovery program. They should, instead, be a way to "bulk up" your job-creation program, which otherwise won't be big enough. -
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jkantor267 and plukasiak: you're pathetic.
I suggest stewed prunes as a remedy.
Cheers,
Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA -
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rose: This is a strange moment: Optimism and triumph mixed with dread over the economy and America's place in the world. Yep, and we're not even considering any number of the really bad things that might could happen, like bird flu.
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I talked to my daughter a short while ago. She knows people at the CDC. Bird flu may be off the media's radar, but not their's, even a little bit - it's not if, but when.
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DemFromCT has an informative piece at the Great Orange Satan's place about it. We are between pandemics, the last having occurred in 1968. Birds, however, are experiencing the equivalent, a panzootic infection of H5N1 (aka "bird flu", a misnomer because birds get all kinds of flu) with the latest outbreak in Nepal.
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Just in case anyone was feeling too much hope and optimism.
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BTW, I heard on Maddow the other night that there will be a ceremonial "saging" at 6 pm tomorrow night at Dupont Circle to cleanse W's bad juju from DC (like they did after he visited Peru a few years ago). I plan to be there:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/28700167#28700167 -
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@jkantor267 @ #10 - I like how you capitalized "Liberal." You are learning to show the proper respect. Now, fix me some tea steeped in conservative tears.
- michaelscherer @alangrayson TIME told your story (http://bit.ly/cdG9qb), tho not how you would have told it, here: http://bit.ly/YSRHh - 4 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @PElliottAP: Obama makes surprise visit to White House briefing room. Tune in. - 7 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @ryssiebee: 92 magazine covers, 10 years, 2 minutes. http://bit.ly/5d7oCo - 9 hours ago
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