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Wait! We're Not Done with Bush Yet...

3:18 PM, January 19, 2009 | Comments (25)
Celebratory is a safe way to describe the mood in Washington. And not just for Barack Obama's big day on Tuesday. When Obama raises his right hand, it will mark for millions of his supporters the end of something else. At Dupont Circle in Northwest Washington,...

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Posted Tuesday, January 20, 2009 10:59 AM

T-Minus One Hour Inside the Capitol

Daniel Stone
Down on the National Mall, the crowd is loud and fiercely excited, just an hour before the man they came to see will take the presidential oath. But inside the capitol building, you can barely hear a whisper. In the capitol's rotunda, the pool of reporters awaits the president-elect as TV cameras with the network news reporters in front of them practice their live shots and scribble notes. "When the executive party arrives, you'll have to step back," one of several hundred capitol police officers has told us repeatedly. On the other side of the rotunda, photographers review the angles they'll take when Obama enters the room.

The arrivals have also begun. John Kerry and Al Gore, along with other high profile attendees walked through the rotunda moments ago. We're told many of Obama's cabinet appointees will walk onto the platform together.

Not far from the media area is the door, adorned with a flag about eight feet tall, where Obama will exit the capitol and step onto the inaugural stand. From there, he'll get the first view of the crowd -- easily approaching two million by now -- that has come to see him take the oath of office. No matter how many people came to cheer for him during the campaign, the view of the entire mall completely covered with cheering people will certainly surprise him.

Next to the rotunda is Statuary Hall, the traditional venue (dating back to president McKinley) for the inaugural luncheon, hosted by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. After the ceremony, Obama will be joined by 220 of his closest friends for a three course lunch. The menu was designed weeks ago, modeled after the tastes of Abraham Lincoln, rather than Obama's. More than 50 servers in white tuxedos await Obama and the high profile guests. Senior members of congress and the new executive staff will join him.

Reporters, for some reason, weren't invited.
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Posted By: PCLC (January 21, 2009 at 3:45 PM)

"modeled after the tastes of Abraham Lincoln"

they're having gruel and mead?

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