The inaugural ceremony managed to alienate hundreds (if not thousands) of ticket-holders thanks to sloppy planning and bad security deployment. They’re not the first event to fail on that count but historically I think this is the first swearing-in-of-a-new-president crowd to get the gate shaft. Imagine holding a ticket to the coveted blue or purple sections only to find that you can’t get to your place because it’s already full. If it were a concert there’d be refunds in spades…but not for this thing. Tickets were free; your plane fare, hotel room, and other “gotta be there” costs had nothing to do with access to the event itself so you were doubly screwed. And yet nobody kicked anybody else (that we’ve heard of), nobody tried to rip down the gates, nobody pitched a hissy and got themselves arrested.

Yay, new era!

On the other hand, the main attraction had to redo his oath because one word was spoken out of sequence. Capitol Hill wanted to be absolutely sure he was officially and unquestionably the President of the United States. That’s kinda funny in a way. Imagine if, a year from now, they discovered that he really wasn’t the president because he flubbed that line in the oath of office. What would that mean? That Bush was technically still our leader? That Biden should’ve been sitting at the Resolute Desk? That our troops had, in a very real sense, gone AWOL from their posts in Iraq when they came home? Heh.

Oh, well. I’m glad it’s over, and I’m glad we are a happy and proud nation looking to our new First Family to do all the right things, cure all the lingering evils, walk down paths strewn with flower petals, and eat at IHOP after church on Sundays just like the rest of us. The Second Camelot, isn’t it? I’m looking forward to seeing things unfold. Imua Obama!

I only have one nit to pick. Okay, one serious nit to pick: I really hated the ball gown. Really, really hated it. Sorry, everyone else. I call it a fail.