No fanfair, no pre leaving rock concert, no "ask what your country can do for you" type speech.
But then we don't lead the free world. Not anymore. Oh no. Our outgoing PM just.....outgoes, and the new one....well.....goes in. All very low key as befits a nation used to past glories and now just grateful to be taken along to G8 type conferences a bit like the fat kid who gets picked for the Sunday morning football game as a sort of sympathy player.
"Look guys he's been coming for years now and we just HAVE to let him play and think about it, if we get stuffed we can blame him !!"
It's 11:25 and we've just put the tv on to have a watch. I mean although none of my taxes will be spent on the 'bit of a do' , I still want to find out where $150m goes these days. Don't the banks need it ?
They're saying about 2 million people are lining the approaches to The Capital and looking at the images, I think that might be an underestimate. It's not the 2 million that are close to the future President that I'd be worried about. It would be the one, just one, who could be a mile away with a high powered sniper rifle.
I've been to Washington and I noted a distinct lack of grassy knolls. And The Capital isn't overlooked by tall buildings either. But the risk remains. Right now I'm a bit like one of those race car fans who watches in case something spectacular will happen. Awful I know but it's been widely reported that someone will have a pop at this President before long.
And so here comes the man of the moment, walking out to his place in history and about to give an 18 minute speech. The crowd is chanting his name, the trumpet fanfares are belting out and with that and the look of the impressive buildings, I'm reminded of a Roman amphitheatre. I'm half expecting Obama to put his thumb up or down.
He's at the dias and the world awaits. We'd like some memorable line that will be quoted, or misquoted, in the decades to come. There will be words like freedom, opportunity, democracy and most of all, change. This is what most people want from this President. Change.
If he's allowed to see through his 8 years, history will tell us if he did indeed bring change. Change to America and change to the world as lets face it, whether we like it or not, what goes on here affects the world. You only have to look at the current world economic situation to know that.
He has an air about him that I've not seen since Kennedy. I just hope he is given more time to make his mark in history and that we're not soon talking about him in the past tense with words like 'if only' and 'what if'.
Things are running a little late and as it's 5 minutes after noon, in theory there is no Presidential leader of the free world. Oh my. Maybe it reverts to The Queen. Hurrah. Long live Her Majesty. I just hope someone has told her. She could be out walking the corgis, totally unaware that she can add Commander-In-Chief to her list of titles.
(and before anyone gives me the line of succession, I know it)
I'm off to watch history in the making but I'll also be keeping an eye open for that removal van.
2 comments:
We're all pretty excited over here in Fat Kid Nation (great analogy by the way). There's a definite feeling of optimism that hasn't been around for a long time. Fingers crossed.
I suppose the hoopla surrounding our presidential inauguration is the closest thing we have to a coronation here in the colonies, er, former colonies. How else would we have an opportunity to see people lining the streets and waving flags wildly? Oh, that's right, I forgot, the Fourth of July....
Post a Comment