I could catch bits and pieces of the Obama inauguration on the web at work while it was happening because the internet kept choking up. In the evening, we watched the complete inauguration ceremony on C-SPAN. Few observations:

  • The coverage was excellent. It was an awesome sight, especially the shots from a camera mounted on the top of the Capitol building showing the crowds on the National mall out all the way to Washington Monument and beyond.
  • Chief justice Roberts was more nervous than Obama during the presidential oath ceremony and botched it up badly.
  • Obama's speech was very good, as expected and he delivered it forcefully and with conviction. Here is a transcript from NYTimes. It is good to have a president who says complex sentences without bungling the words and/or making monkey faces. I liked some of his points:
    • A nice jab at Bush's policies of wiretaps and torture by saying, "As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
    • "We will restore science to its rightful place...". Nice to hear this after years of overt governmental support for stupidity such as creationism (intelligent design) and not accepting human hand in global warming. Hopefully, stem cell research will get back on track with more government funding for new cell-lines.
    • "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers." It was good to see the acknowledgment of existence of the last two groups (the ones that I belong to).
    • A couple of sound-bytes that will be memorable: "...we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." and "...a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world..."
  • John Williams' piece "Air and simple gifts" was excellent but, that poet from Yale, Elizabeth Alexander was not a great choice. Whatever she was reciting didn't qualify as a poem to me.
  • It was disappointing to see anti-gay evangelist, Rick Warren as a part of the ceremony. The only thing that left a bad taste from the whole proceeding.