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A Bar Stool View of This Moment in American History

Some reactions to Obama's inauguration speech (which, yes, I watched in a bar).
January 20, 2009  |  
 
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Tomorrow, I will allow my cynicism to return; I’ll face up to the fact that we now have an instinctive centrist tasked with digging us out of the deep hole in which we find ourselves.

I’ll be acutely aware of the promise and peril of an Obama administration; he can give the Right the gift of laying blame for 8 years of disastrous “conservatism” onto Obama — and liberalism by extension — or he can usher in an era of liberal consensus such as existed between FDR’s swearing in and the signing of the Civil Rights Act.

But today, I think it’s appropriate to celebrate the moment. Change has come — its exact nature still  to be determined — and that is something joyous unto itself.

A smart black guy with a funny ay-rab name just became president of these United States.

*****

I wanted to watch the speech with others, so I hit the streets.

Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet.

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