PRESIDENT OBAMA!

One thing I am very curious about: the website for the Obama White House.

The White House’s official website, Whitehouse.gov, was launched in October 1994 under the Clinton administration. It looked like this. Over the years it changed to this, then this, then this; here is how it looked at the end of the Clinton presidency.

Around noon on January 20, 2001, the first Whitehouse.gov transition occurred. The Bush administration’s first website looked like this — pretty crappy, even for 2001. Here are a couple of articles about it. Eventually it improved.

But today, at noon or sometime thereafter, the keys to the website will pass the new administration. Will it have a blog? A Flickr feed? A YouTube channel? Some secret new technology invented by Google that will be introduced to the world today?

We’ll soon find out.

Contrary to popular belief, Obama will not become president when he takes the oath of office. I didn’t realize this until a couple of days ago.

According to the official schedule (see page 14), Obama takes the oath at 11:56 a.m., four minutes before he actually becomes president.

When I found this out, it really bothered me, for purely anal retentive reasons, because I envisioned some invisible mantle of power transferring from Bush to Obama at the precise moment Obama says “so help me God.” But I guess it makes sense for him to take the oath in advance of becoming president instead of at the moment he becomes president, or else there will be several seconds in which he’s president without having taken the oath. I suppose it doesn’t really matter how far in advance of noon he takes the oath, since he’ll constitutionally become president at the stroke of twelve.

So even after you watch Obama recite the oath and everyone errupts into euphoria and the band plays “Hail to the Chief,” Bush is still president for another couple of minutes. But by the time Obama begins his Inaugural Address at 12:01, he’s the new president.

Just some TV-watching advice from your friendly neighborhood Tin Man…

Wow — when Obama is inaugurated, there will be three living Democratic presidents for the first time since 1865. And there will be more living Democratic presidents than Republican presidents for the first time since 1969.

Happy New Year everyone! It’s 2009. The last year of the ’00s. By some reckonings the last year of the decade. Ten years ago it was 1999. Twenty-five years ago it was 1984.

This month Obama takes office and Bush leaves. Just 19 days to go. Thank god.

For New Year’s Eve we saw “Doubt,” had dinner, and then went up to Inwood to visit my friend from work and his partner. It was a last-minute invite and we wound up having a great time.

I enjoyed “Doubt” a lot, but having seen the play as well, I need to go find and read the original script. Matt and I both swear there were some differences in the scene between Sister Aloysius and Donald Miller’s mother.

Happy New Year, everyone. I hope 2009 brings you, and me, all the best.

So yeah… Rick Warren.

I’ve gone back and forth on Obama’s decision to have Warren give the invocation at his inauguration. On the one hand, it’s just a speech. It has nothing to do with policy. On the other hand… it’s awful, awful symbolism.

Warren will give the invocation at an historic event where millions of people will be watching. This is a man who campaigned for Prop 8, the passage of which was the biggest setback for American gay rights in years. This just rubs salt in a very raw wound.

I think it was a rare tone-deaf decision. And it means one of two things, neither of which makes me feel good. Either Obama didn’t expect the reaction he got because he doesn’t understand what a bitter thing Prop 8 is for gay people, which reflects poorly on his empathy for us; or he did expect the reaction but thought it was worth taking the heat because Warren could be valuable to him in the future.

My guess is a little bit of both.

He didn’t expect the vehemence of the reaction. After all, it’s not a cabinet position — it’s just part of a ceremony. It’s not an enormous news story at a time when people are concerned about the economy and the auto bailot. In fact, when I first read about Warren giving the invocation, it was contained in a New York Times post that gave more prominence to Aretha Franklin’s participation.

And there was politics involved here. We must always remember that Obama is a politician. That’s not a slur against him — it’s just reality. Even FDR, one of the greatest presidents of the 20th century, was a politician. He didn’t lift a finger to advance the cause of black civil rights during his presidency because he couldn’t afford to alienate the southern wing of the Democratic party. You work with whom you have to work with in order to accomplish the greatest good for the greatest number of people. By most estimates gay people make up merely 4-6 percent of the American population. The Rick Warren decision makes me incredibly angry because I just happen to be among that 4-6 percent. But it still hurts to feel we’re expendable.

Including a gay marching band in the parade doesn’t really make up for it. Having Rev. Joseph E. Lowery give the closing benediction — he is apparently a friend to gays — helps somewhat, but on the other hand, as the head of the Human Rights Campaign states, “would any inaugural committee say to Jewish Americans, ‘We’re opening with an anti-Semite but closing the program with a rabbi, so don’t worry’?” Would Obama give a similar honor to a pastor who said that black people were inherently dumber than white people?

I admire Obama’s ability to be friends with everyone, to try to understand all points of view, to remain preternaturally calm. But sometimes it’s just too much for me. I don’t think he gets that not everyone can be as zen about everything as he is. Some of us are just human.

In the long run, this might not amount to much. If Obama gets rid of don’t ask/don’t tell; if, somewhere down the line, he works to get federally-recognized civil unions; if he speaks out forcefully for gay rights, rather than just giving us token recognition in one line of a speech — then I might forgive him.

Still — the invocation?

Barack Obama was elected president 38 days ago.

He won’t be inaugurated for another 39 days.

We are not even halfway through the transition period yet. God, this is taking forever.

What is it about a scandal that taints anyone connected to it, whether or not they were even involved?

Perhaps I just worry too much about people giving too much credence to wingnuts on the right. But still.

Look at Whitewater, where even though there was no evidence that Clinton did anything wrong, there was still this whiff around the whole thing, because people thought, well, if all these people are raising questions, there must be something to it.

There seems to be a perception that Obama is tainted by the Blagojevich scandal even though he and his transition team apparently refused to play ball with the governor. I’m trying to figure out why.

The only legitimate question I can think of — given that Obama’s team refused to enter into a deal with Blagojevich — is that if Blagojevich or anyone from his team even tried to play ball with anyone from the Obama team, then should the people on the transition team who were approached by Blagojevich’s team have gone to the U.S. Attorney’s office with the information? Did they? And if they didn’t, did they do something wrong?

Is Obama tainted because he endorsed Blagojevich for re-election two years ago even though there were corruption stories about him?

Look, lots of people during the primary season thought Obama was a gentle, idealistic naif who would be chewed apart by the Republicans. Few people thought he even had a chance of beating Hillary Clinton to the nomination. They were wrong. Obama has always been pragmatic and savvy.

On the other hand, some people thought Obama could walk on water and heal the sick. Obama encouraged this talk by giving amazing speeches and by holding himself to a higher standard, wanting to change the way politics is done.

But to get good things done in politics, sometimes you have to work with bad people. That doesn’t mean you have to make bad deals with them, but sometimes you have to at least work with them. In the last few days, Blagojevich has become radioactive, but he wasn’t two years ago, even if he was already being investigated at that time.

Obama is a politician. A Chicago politician. That doesn’t mean he or anyone on his team did anything wrong. But it does mean that sometimes you have to deal with scum, because the scum is there.

How glitzy shoud Obama’s inauguration be? How much money should be spent? The New York Times provides historical perspective:

The most elaborate presidential inaugural parade took place during one of the nation’s biggest economic expansions. In 1953, in the postwar boom, the newly sworn-in president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, led a parade up Pennsylvania Avenue with 73 bands, 59 floats, 350 horses, 3 elephants, an Alaskan dog team and military vehicles. There were 25,000 marchers on foot; the entire parade lasted four and a half hours. It was deemed so excessive that subsequent parades were limited to 15,000 marchers.

Perhaps the most austere inauguration was in 1945, when the nation was still at war and Franklin D. Roosevelt, beginning his fourth term, was in failing health. There was no parade; he took the oath on the South Portico of the White House in a ceremony that lasted just 14 minutes. He wanted chicken a la king to be served for lunch to his guests, but his housekeeper said she could not keep it hot, and instead served cold chicken salad, rolls, coffee and cake, unfrosted. Wartime rationing meant no butter for the rolls.

It is safe to say that Mr. Obama’s inauguration will fall somewhere in between.

Whenever I hear the phrase “President-elect Obama” I immediately set it to the tune of the words “Solidarity Forever” from Billy Eliot.

Instead of

Solidarity solidarity
Solidarity forever

I sing

President-elect President-elect
President-elect Obama

I just can’t stop.

(You can hear the original in this clip at about 1:59 and several times thereafter.)

It’s like eight years ago, when W picked Dick Cheney as his running mate and people were going around replacing the words “Slim Shady” with “Dick Cheney” in the Eminem song.

At first it seemed to me like it was taking Obama a long time to name anyone to his cabinet. But I’ve found this old New York Times article about Bill Clinton’s presidential transition, dated November 11, 1992, eight days after his election to the presidency. It stated that Kennedy, Nixon, Carter and Reagan all waited until December to appoint any cabinet members. So I guess Obama’s on track.

The article’s also interesting for the light it sheds on the Clinton and Obama transitions:

The most striking thing about Gov. Bill Clinton since the election has been the intriguing contrast between Bill Clinton the candidate and Bill Clinton the President-elect.

The Bill Clinton the public saw during the campaign was decisive, vigorous and remarkably open, a candidate who spent up to 18 hours a day talking up his ideas in public. But President-elect Bill Clinton has been seen only rarely. He has been conspicuously deliberate in making decisions and as obsessed with holding information close to the vest as any President.

That sounds familiar, and it’s probably not unusual.

A week after Election Day the Clinton transition operation still consists of Mr. Clinton, his wife, Hillary, Vice President-elect Al Gore Jr., a few intimate friends and advisers from the campaign and a skeletal transition board that has met only twice and is still trying to work out a timetable to present to Mr. Clinton for his most important transition decisions.

By contrast, Obama’s team seems to be highly organized and meeting regularly.

George Stephanopoulos, Mr. Clinton’s director of communications and one of the very few former campaign officials with any apparent connection to Mr. Clinton these days, presents daily briefings for the public that are portraits in minimalism. Tiny shreds of information about Mr. Clinton’s activities and thoughts are padded out and embellished to make the puny sound Presidential.

OK, I just thought that was funny.

“The reason that it seems like very little is happening is because very little is happening,” said one longtime Clinton friend, who spoke only on the condition that he not be identified. “Very few decisions have been made. This is very much Bill’s style: being extremely deliberate if not slow. He wants to do things carefully and right.”

Obama at his first press conference: “And I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize ‘deliberate’ as well as ‘haste.'”

I guess things are moving along at a decent pace after all.

Best line about Obama’s visit to the White House yesterday:

“I can’t believe Obama is already sitting down with an unpopular, aggressive world leader without preconditions.”

Brains Are Back!

Michael Hirsh writes:

What Obama’s election means, above all, is that brains are back. Sense and pragmatism and the idea of considering-all-the-options are back. Studying one’s enemy and thinking through strategic problems are back. Cultural understanding is back. Yahooism and jingoism and junk science about global warming and shabby legal reasoning about torture are out. The national culture of flag-pin shallowness that guided our foreign policy is gone with the wind. And for this reason as much as any, perhaps I can renew my pride in being an American.

In the spring of 2004, Jan Schakowsky, a Democratic congresswoman from Evanston, Illinois, told me a funny story about startling President Bush during a visit to the White House. She was wearing a big, blue “OBAMA” button. This was in the early days of Barack Obama’s campaign for the U.S. Senate. Bush “jumped back, almost literally,” Schakowsky said. “And I knew what he was thinking. So I reassured him it was Obama, with a ‘b.’ And I explained who he was. The President said, ‘Well, I don’t know him.’ So I just said, ‘You will.’”

– from the New Yorker

Obama did worse than Kerry among gay voters? What the hell?

[Update: I think Homer makes an excellent point. Very small sample size of gay voters, which might have led to inaccurate results.]

I woke up this morning and it hit me all over again: Barack Obama is the President-elect of the United States.

I can’t get over how wonderful it feels.

I keep having to remind myself that it’s not just the end of a campaign, but a new beginning of something else. We’ve just concluded a two-year epic saga, in which one of the main characters was Barack Obama. But it’s not like getting to the last page of a book, where you put it down and never think about it again. No — we’re at just the beginning! This has all been just prelude! It’s like we’ve just finished The Hobbit and we’re about to start reading The Lord of the Rings.

When I’ve hoped and thought about Barack Obama being president recently, it’s not just the Big Idea of it, but the little images that have come into my mind:

• President Obama giving the State of the Union every year, with Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi standing behind him.
• President Obama walking across the White House Lawn to Marine One, then turning around to give a salute before ascending the steps of the helicopter.
• President Obama and the leader of another country sitting together in fancy chairs in the Oval Office, while photographers click away.
• TV reporters referring to him as “the President,” without even having to use his real name. “The President announced today…” or, “Norah O’Donnell, NBC News, with the President.”

Really, I feel like we’re at the beginning of a remake of The West Wing.

And I love this article about the new First Family.

Obama will make mistakes. He has difficult decisions ahead. Our country’s in the toilet. And day-to-day governance is messy, with its daily news cycles, the messy legislative process, wins and losses, Washington sniping, political roundtables on TV. Poetry gives way to prose. In the euphoria of his election and inauguration, Bill Clinton talked about changing the culture of Washington. So did George W. Bush. It never happened.

There will be times I disagree with President Obama, get annoyed at him, disappointed in him. There will be times when the public does as well.

But this is an extraordinary man. And if things are even a smidgen better than they’ve been for the last eight years, we’re in luck.

On Tuesday night, as Obama was speaking in Chicago, I turned to Matt and said, “We’ll finally have a president again who knows how to speak.”

That alone is reason to rejoice.

A few weeks ago, the New Yorker ran an article about the Lincoln Memorial and how the role of Abraham Lincoln in the American memory has changed over time. Next year is Lincoln’s bicentennial, and the Lincoln Memorial will be rededicated in the spring. The piece ends this way:

In 1909, the Reverend L. H. Magee, the pastor of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Springfield, Illinois, voiced his disgust at the exclusion of blacks from the town’s centennial dinner, but he imagined that by the time of the bicentennial, in 2009, racial prejudice would be “relegated to the dark days of ‘Salem witchcraft.’ ” Next year’s Lincoln commemorations in Washington will include the reopening of Ford’s Theatre, restored for performances for the second time since 1893, when its interior collapsed, killing twenty-two people. Congress will convene in a joint session on February 12th, and on May 30th the still new President will rededicate the Lincoln Memorial. The look and the emphasis of the occasion will have changed—measurably, for certain; astoundingly, perhaps—in the fourscore and seven years since 1922.

So President Obama will speak at the Lincoln Memorial next May. It will be stirring.