Barack Obama: Snow, Lesbians, The Menu And the Chant Begins

BARACK Obama has not only acrued 100% of the American public’s backing, but the media has also bought into the dream. Who but Obama could deal with this level of expectaion that he will heel the world?

Two months after the election, young people are still calling his name, “Obama, Obama…”

In the UK, the children hear the call:

In the UK, events are being held in cities including Belfast, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and London. Organisers say it’s important for UK communities to mark Obama’s success.

Blessed are the car washers:

Oxford car wash owner Khalid Ahmed is so certain new US President Barack Obama can clean up the world he has named his business after him.

As the world celebrates the inauguration of Obama as the 44th President of the United States today, Mr Ahmed, 30, renamed his car wash ‘Obama’ and promised: “If he needs his car washed, I am his man”.

While Obama descends, up in the Heavens a man with a long white bead and flowing robes considers the matter of loving up to the the hype and - poof” - combusts.

Mike Lupica writes in Daily News:

“Obama is a new beginning at a time we need a new beginning as much as we have in nearly 80 years. We finally have a President we want to believe in, a President who again feels like the smartest guy in the room.”

What Obama is, of course, is smarter then George Bush, or at elast he’s perceived to be so. All change:

“If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition’s arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation” -Mark Helprin, Oct. 31, 2000

All change:

“Washington’s Homeless Told to Move Along for Inauguration”–headline, Agence France-Presse, Jan. 15, 2009

Not only does Obama care more for the homeless, but he’s a better talker than Bush:

At least Obama can rely on Joe, his old China plate:

“The proof of the pudding is in the eating. . . . The Bush-Cheney relationship hasn’t tasted very good. Not a single person you can name for me. Look at me, now, a single one can’t tell you that the pudding has tasted good” -Joe Biden

Stand up for the pudding. You, sir, in the fancy schmancy wheeled chair - stand up for the pudding.

Obama is no slave to the past, to history to what we cannot do. And neither are lesbians:

On the morning after the election, Kristin Rothballer, 36, who lives in San Francisco, kissed her female partner goodbye on the train while commuting to work. A black woman who sat down next to her turned and said she was sorry that Proposition 8, the amendment to ban gay marriage in the state, looked like it was going to pass.

“We grabbed hands,” Ms. Rothballer recalled. “And I said, ‘Well, I really want to congratulate you because we have a black president and that’s amazing.’ ”

“Our conversation then almost became about the fact that we were having the conversation,” she said.

Something moved her to apologize to the black woman for slavery.

“For two strangers riding a train to Oakland to have that conversation about race, it wouldn’t have been possible if Obama hadn’t been elected,” she said. “I always felt open with my colleagues, but to say to a stranger on the train, ‘Hey, I’m sorry about slavery,’ that just doesn’t happen.”

Black lesbians may have to apologise and congratulate each other at once.

In Britain, the view of Obama is obscured by having to cock your head to look up at him from the position of chief supplicant. If Americans can be washed clean by Obama, then so too can its big ally.

“Magic spell that will open new American era” - Jonathan Freedland

Says historian Don Ritchie:

“It’s a very important day. People really do get very emotional about it. Historians wax eloquent when they write about those moments. They tend to look for a sign. If the sky opens up and a ray of sunshine comes through it is a good omen. If there is a blizzard they see trouble coming in the process.”

Freedland again:

There are snow flurries outside

A heeling whiteness, say some. But worry ye not - there’ a party a-starin’.

As Simon Scowl observes, in the Washington Post, they’re not happy about all the money being spent on it:

A grandmother of four sent the White House a tongue-in-cheek invitation to hold the inauguration at her house under rented tents, proposing to free up millions of dollars to feed and house the poor…

“I was just outraged when I was made aware of the amount of money being spent on a party,” said Sandra Mikovich-Pogorelc, a manager for a pharmaceutical company near San Diego who e-mailed her disgust to the White House.

“The money could be used for other things. I don’t resent anyone who goes. I just feel it’s such a waste…”

Internet blog sites… are filled with discussions about the human suffering that could be alleviated with the $35 million to $40 million being spent on the inauguration.

Only:

Hey, wait a sec… $35 to $40 million? I thought Obama’s inauguration was going to cost more like $170 million? Hold on, let me double-check something…

Oh, I see what happened. I was looking at a WaPo story from January 2005. You know, when Bush was inaugurated again (assuming you’re naive enough to believe he actually won the first time). That changes everything. $40 million?

Money is on Obama’s side. In God We Trust. So says Spike Lee:

LEE: So many things have happened.  All of a sudden, the economy goes south at that moment, and then McCain [gestures going down].

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It almost propelled him to office.

LEE: There were so many things.  It was almost a movement that had to be ordained, I think.

Asks the MSNBC trail:

“When a new President inspires the nation, one day Americans will ask: where were you when Barack Obama became President?”

You can be in Starbucks. It’s being piped in. But take care to sit away from the windows. And look on as Obams eats hi lunch:

Inaugural Luncheon Menu

First Course

* Seafood Stew

* Duckhorn Vineyards, 2007 Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley

Second Course

* A Brace of American Birds (pheasant and duck), served with Sour Cherry Chutney and Molasses Sweet Potatoes

* Goldeneye, 2005 Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley

Third Course

* Apple Cinnamon Sponge Cake
and Sweet Cream Glacé

* Korbel Natural “Special Inaugural Cuvée,” California Champagne

Chin-chin!

American singer Kelly Rowland will be one of the performers at the Yes We Did inauguration party at the Intercontinental Hotel in Park Lane, central London.

The event will also celebrate the achievements of black Britons and other performers will include British singer and TV presenter Mica Paris.

In Yorkshire:

The Queens Head in Burley in Wharfedale, is decked out in American flags, and a special menu has been created in his honour.

Chef Tim Yulden will be dishing up a supersize Obama burger as well as Hawaiian burgers and pizza – in recognition of Mr Obama having spent part of his childhood in Hawaii – hot chocolate brownies and chilli hot dogs.

Celebromas:

IT’S the big day at last for Barack Obama, as he finally gets the keys to the White House, so here’s hoping we can all relax for a few years as Obama replaces one of the most trigger-happy and moronic leaders the USA has ever elected.

There is just one cloud on the horizon and it’s a fluffy, pink, irritating one. Hotel heiress Paris Hilton revealed at the weekend that she’ll run for the most powerful job in the world when she’s older.

And thanks to Obama, the world will still be there to welcome her…

Anorak

Posted: 20th, January 2009 | In: Key Posts, Politicians Comments (21) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink