The reputations of some American Presidential inaugural addresses get better each decade. Out of the 20th century alone, those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan have grown into mega-legendary status. Just avoid listening too carefully to the actual originals!
President Barack Obama will have no need to worry about his inaugural address being over-rated. Except for a phrase or two here and there, it provided mostly unmemorable if to-the-point oratory, though delivered in the soaring context of an otherwise glorious and historic occasion.
Not that it matters much. As candidate, Obama gave us enough excellent speeches to last normal human politicians a full presidential term. He could probably recycle a few of his very best and not many would mind.
Besides, everyone already knew what he's said he's going to do, or thinks he's going to do or hopes he will get done. Now, everyone wants to know what he actually does, to see him actually doing something.
That's the hard part. It's a lot easier to be a candidate for the nation's top political job than actually to fill it. In the former task you only have one major obstacle to overcome - your evil opponent.
In the actual White House you have many - the enemies of America abroad, and the enemies at home, particularly in Congress and in the Judiciary.
" America is still a more or less functioning democracy - not a dictatorship.
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Note that when the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court officiated at the Presidential swearing-in, he fluffed a line. Perhaps the ordinarily unflappable Chief Justice John
Roberts remembered, chokingly, that Obama, as senator, voted against his confirmation. In Washington politics, it is the norm never to get angry, but to get even. In the years ahead, Roberts will have ample opportunities.
Note that during a gala official lunch for the Obamas and the Bidens in the Capitol building, two senators were taken ill - no, not from the cuisine, but from existing ailments and, presumably in the specific cases of Senators Byrd and Kennedy, sheer age. Both were Democrats. The symbolism of two members of Obama's own party getting ill in his presence is just too obvious - and I admit, cheesy of me - to pass over.
It won't prove to be the only time President Obama makes members of his own party ill.
Those who watched the ceremonies on world television may have wondered about the very prominent role given a woman not so well known in the world outside Washington.
Her name is Dianne Feinstein, and she is, in fact, the senior US Senator from California. Count perhaps only House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and First Lady Michelle Obama as more politically potent female Democrats right now.
In the 2008 film Milk, this real-life political person was played by actress Ashlee Temple. The story is a storied one in US lore. When San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk (a notable gay activist) were assassinated in 1978, Feinstein, then a local politician, filled in seamlessly, and went on to become the first elected female Mayor of San Francisco in her own right. After serving as Mayor, she was elected one of the two US Senators from California.
On the Senatorial seniority list, she ranks something like 27th out of 100. But Feinstein almost didn't make it. In 1994 a stiff challenge by Arianna Huffington's then-husband Michael, a very conservative junior congressman with more money than brains, almost toppled her.
A strenuous editorial-page endorsement campaign by the then-powerful Los Angeles Times probably helped save her - and prevented this powerful Senate seat from falling into the hands of a nitwit. From then on, she soared to near the top of the most-respected list of Washington politicians.
Sharp and dedicated, Feinstein, who among other duties is the incoming chairman of the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence, illustrates an obvious but sometimes overlooked aspect of American politics - which was why I was happy to see this talented and competent woman, whom, I greatly admire, at the inaugural podium so often earlier this week. Even if Barack Obama can walk on water, he will need the vigilant help of others if in the end he is not to sink in the D.C. muck.
America is still a more or less functioning democracy - not a dictatorship. Obama's charm, wisdom and intellect will carry many a day, but on many other days he's going to require the help of others to save the day. Feinstein is one of those *Yes We Can'-type warriors. Watch how she does over the next few years and you will see how the whole Obama deal is playing out.
Syndicated columnist and veteran journalist Tom Plate was editor of the Editorial Pages of The Los Angeles Times from 1989-1995. c 2009, Pacific Perspectives Media Center.
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