Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Inauguration Day: January 20, 2009

I just put down the reservation on the hotel for a trip to see Barack Obama sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20th of next year. Yeah, I'm that confident, and watching the speeches tonight makes me only more so. By the most accurate polls, Obama is narrowly beating McCain by slightly less than ten electoral votes and has been doing so consistently for weeks now. This is when his support among Clinton Democrats has been at its nadir, and as it begins to sink in that Obama is the undisputed nominee and that McCain only offers to ensure all the policies that Hillary Clinton has worked against, those numbers can only get better. Obama may suffer some wear-&-tear in the debates and there may be some hiccups if he poorly chooses his Vice-Presidential nominee, but after seeing this guy weather the Clinton machine, Revered Wright, and Bittergate only to come out stronger, I have faith in the man.

Only problem is, that because so many hotels around Dulles Airport are already booked up, we had to settle for a place all the way out in Prince Frederick, Maryland. That'll mean a couple of hours of driving from the airport to the hotel, and then nearly an hour of driving back into Washington, D.C. Still, the die is cast and Jeannine and I are set: we're going to watch history made as what I believe may be the best president this country has seen since FDR begins his own first Hundred Days in office.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

do you have to have government clearance to watch him be sworn in? and tickets? I am curious about the process and how I can bring myself and family to dc I live in california md .

Gil Trevizo said...

My understanding is that you don't need government clearance, but there a limited amount of tickets (something like 250,000). These tickets are required to get near the Capitol steps where Obama will be sworn in, and as that area fills up with ticket-goers, overflow will be pushed out further into the National Mall. So even if you have a ticket, there's no guarantee that you'll be within line-of-sight of Obama. Basically, tickets or not, chances are good you'll be watching the Inauguration from within a crowd happen on big TV screens mounted around the area. This is fine by me and my wife, as we just want to be there when the moment happens.

I've had conflicting information on the Inaugural Parade. I've heard that this might require tickets as well, but I've also heard that this is simply open to the public at large.

In any case, I would encourage you to contact your Senator and House Rep as soon as possible and ask them if they can give you tickets.

That, and get yourself a hotel or some kind of arrangements for lodging RIGHT NOW. That is really filling up fast.