Going to Obama’s Inauguration in 2009.
Barack Obama has always been my favorite American politician. It was his initial presidential campaign that first got me interested in politics, and I even fairly recently finished reading volume one of his official memoir, A Promised Land. I thought of him all the time while majoring in politics at Occidental. It is obviously safe to say that I have admired Barack Obama for almost two decades now.
Going to President Obama’s inauguration in January of 2009 with my immediate family was one of the most rewarding political activities that I have ever participated in. As I write this today, I still remember shivering in the biting cold on the morning of the 20th, standing on our tarpaulin and gazing intently at the jumbotron which depicted Barack giving his powerful and moving Inaugural Address. I would have loved to have been physically closer to the Capitol Building on that fortuitous day, but there ended up being roughly 1.8 million people on the National Mall with us so we got the best viewing location we could manage.
I have always thought that Obama was a gifted orator, and the speech he gave that day was one of the best I have ever heard from any politician. My high school English teacher even liked it so much that she passed out copies of the Address to everyone in class shortly after my family and I got back from D.C. I have known for quite a while that Obama personally edits and partially drafts all of his major speeches. While I was listening to Barack’s famous words on the 20th, I remember feeling inspired, uplifted, and excited for the future of America, and the future of this historic Administration.
Hanging on the wall of my room to this day is a collectible poster from D.C. that has a black-and-white picture of Obama, complete with his photocopied signature and a foil presidential seal. Above my desk is an original blue campaign poster that has the words OBAMA-BIDEN on it, and the address of the campaign’s website at the time.
The message these various pieces of memorabilia tell is simple: the historic words that President Obama uttered on that fateful day back in 2009 can never be forgotten, and neither can the heroic actions of his very successful two-term Administration.
To this day, I feel that Barack Obama is one of the best presidents we have ever had, and that any future president would do well to emulate him. At the end of this post, I leave you all with my favorite quote from Obama’s first inaugural address: “The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”
This image that I took depicts the crowds on the National Mall for the Inauguration.