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In a few hours Barack Obama will be sworn-in as the 44th President of the United States. I've been to three Inaugurations (Nixon, Clinton, Clinton) and they are magnificent events.
In attendance and arrayed at the foot of the platform from which a newly-minted President Obama will give his Inaugural Address following his taking the Oath of Office will be Alabama's Congressional Delegation -- joining the entire Congress of the United States.
My question, put to the ether here, is whether -- when President Obama speaks about common challenges, working together, caring for "the least of these (our) brethren", facing the future with optimistic determination, and other such thing -- our Alabama Delegation will be thinking of ways to work with this new Administration, or ways to obstruct, derail, behave cynically towards and otherwise "knee-cap" it?
Obama's a smart guy and (for a change) will be a smart President. He'll be more-than-willing to throw the expected and requisite political bone to the GOP (and to the oft-times cynical and sneering "Blue Dog Democrats").
Will such people, these Members of Congress whom Obama will treat with much greater respect than Bush ever dreamed of treating Democrats, throw it back in his face, pound their little, plastic, high-chair tables and scream for more, or will they behave with some grace and maturity and take Obama's hand when he offers it to them?
Time will tell. But I don't think we'll have to wait too long to see upon which path they're more comfortable traveling...
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An indulgence, a flashback:
From January 20, 1993. My photo of very cool photographer Annie Liebowitz, taken in front of the Capitol an hour or two before Bill Clinton took the Oath of Office.
BenGoshi
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