NewMexiKen
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Archive for January 21, 2009

Details on the Do-Over

Wednesday, January 21, 2009  ·  Comments Off   

From the press pool report via Talking Points Memo:

At 735 pm, Roberts administred the oath of office again to obama in the map room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a “an abundance of caution.”

“We decided it was so much fun…” Obama joked while sitting on a couch.

Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool as roberts donned his black robe.

“Are you ready to take the oath?” Roberts asked.

“I am, and we’re going to do it very slowly,” obama replied.

Oath took 25 seconds.

After a flawless recitation, roberts smiled and said, “congratulations, again.”

Obama said, “thank you, sir.”

Smattering of applause.

“All right.” Obama said. “The bad news for the pool is there’s 12 more balls.”

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Good lines

Wednesday, January 21, 2009  ·  2 Comments   

An excerpt from New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones’s take on the Neighborhood Ball:

[R]ight before Denzel Washington introduced the biggest rock stars of the night, who strolled out as if they only had maybe one or two other balls to hit. Mr. Obama was in black tie, Mrs. Obama, Jason Wu. Quite reasonably, President Obama asked the crowd, “How good-looking is my wife?” Nations melted, seas calmed, hostilities paused. More to the point, every other First Couple understood that notice had been served. Even you, Mrs. Bruni-Sarkozy, will have a tough time outshining an Obama.

The Obamas danced to Beyoncé’s version of Etta James staple, “At Last.” I didn’t expect this to be my weepy moment, but it was. These two gorgeous people were doing something so specifically American, sweet, mudane, and unprecedented. It was America’s first real prom, the dream of soda pop and radio for everyone. That said—this is still the music business, and performing an Etta James song is still cross-promotion when you’ve still got your Etta James picture in the theatres. Good going, B.

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Odd

Wednesday, January 21, 2009  ·  4 Comments   

It appears that my next door neighbor, who has flown the U.S. flag in front of his house virtually every day since 9-11, stopped flying it this week.

I haven’t had a chance to ask him what’s up. I’m not sure whether it will bother me more to find out he’s a racist, or just that he doesn’t acknowledge that voters have a choice and it’s still his country whatever the result. Disturbing.

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Shared responsibility

Wednesday, January 21, 2009  ·  Comments Off   

Paul Krugman has a reality check for us this morning. (The Daily Show did something similar last night.)

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Front Pages

Wednesday, January 21, 2009  ·  Comments Off   

Today’s Front Pages | Gallery View.

Scroll around, it’s fun.

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