Post-Inauguration Quarterbacking

I was happily able to watch President Obama's (Let's say that again! President! Obama!) whole inauguration speech at work (thanks, Mr. Prez, for keeping it around 20 minutes). Working in an office full of proofreaders (and thus professional nitpickers), we all picked up on Obama's referring to himself as the "44th man" to take the oath of office (consternation! Grover Cleveland!) but it was probably easier to go with the better-known number than to stop and explain a blip of history. After all, Cleveland was a reformist democrat who won the popular vote for re-election, but lost the Electoral College vote thanks to Republican voter fraud in Indiana. We know that never happened again… in Indiana.

As a music buff, I was caught short by Obama's exhortation "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off..." as I thought he was citing the old Jerome Kern song (Pick yourself up!/Dust yourself off!/Start all over again!).

Still and all, it was nice to hear a President use complete sentences for 20 minutes, each sentence using words already in the dictionary. Put me in mind of where I was on that day 16 years before: Standing on Pennsylvania Avenue, waiting to watch Clinton's inauguration parade, and to boo the previous Bush.