Obama's Inauguration Ceremony: in 12 days, 13 hours, 32 minutes, 51 seconds
Another day, another press conference about the economy… Well, at least he’s taking it seriously, eh? 
Barack Obama announced two new administration members yesterday, and spoke more about his plans for rejuvenating the economy and building a “smarter” government. Sounds like his team are going through funding programs with a fine-toothed comb:
But he knows how to play with grown-ups now. As proved by his pick of Joe Biden - and as Paul Krugman notes in the New York Times:
“Seriously, isn’t it amazing just how impressive the people being named to key positions in the Obama administration seem? Bye-bye hacks and cronies, hello people who actually know what they’re doing. For a bunch of people who were written off as a permanent minority four years ago, the Democrats look remarkably like the natural governing party these days, with a deep bench of talent.
That doesn’t mean they’ll succeed — this might be a good time to reread The Best and the Brightest. But what an improvement!”
An improvement, indeed. The Republican party seems to wear ignorance and anti-intellectualism as a badge of honour; and the Bush administration rife was with cronyism. In fact, as the son of a former President, you could say he himself was the ultimate crony. Surrounded by cronies. Being all crony-like.
(Hmm… ‘crony’ is definitely one of those words which, the more you say it, the weirder it sounds.)
Hat-tip: Bob Cesca.
Relationship experts Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks have made another interesting observation about Barack and Michelle Obama over on HuffPo.
Using the recent 60 Minutes interview as an example, they draw attention to the fact that Barack actually looks at Michelle when she’s talking. No, really! Apparently, this is a complete rarity among First Couples:
“With Michelle and Barack’s relationship, their level of ease, affection and respect carries a deep sense of authenticity about it. After nearly 40 years of counseling couples, individuals, business executives and others, we’ve seen just about every form of concealment, subterfuge, defensiveness and guile there is to see. If you’ve been watching presidential couples for a few decades, you’ve also seen just about every form of concealment, subterfuge, defensiveness and guile there is to see. Maybe now we’re embarking on something new and long overdue: a role model of a healthy relationship in the White House.”
And amen to that. Here’s a clip from the interview if you want to see all that, y’know, looking:
And here were some of the most interesting observations on the HuffPo comments board:
“I think the solid relationship between them contributes a great deal to the President-elect’s famous calm and even temperament. It’s a lot easier to forgive insults and move on (Lieberman & and all the rest) when your life is filled with strong, authentic love. It keeps everything else in perspective. It lets you approach everything from a position of strength and confidence. I have often thought in the past about how personally lonely and bereft some politicians seemed to be (Nixon comes to mind, as does HRC) and wondered how much that affected their public personalities.” - myjazzyhands
“There is no doubt that the two share a special chemistry and relationship that will do wonders for americans. We have had years of polarization, anger and resentments towards each other as a people. And it’s considered cool to put down your spouse and show disrespect to them… The people of this country are tired of being afraid, depressed and angry. And the fact that the Obamas respect and love each other and are not afraid to show it to the world is another layer of the tone and thinking and mood changing.” - lafrance
“One thing that makes me feel hopeful for women’s rights is that Obama sees his wife as his peer, as another human being. I don’t think he would ever deny that she is capable of making her own choices about her body and her life. To many men, their wives are all women, and all women can generally expect to be treated the way a man treats his wife and daughters. If this holds true, the women of America are in for one of the best four year spans in their history.” - Anpan
“Barack won over lots of hearts because he is a good listener and is actually interested in what people have to say. It begins at home and is a great quality for a parent to have as well as a husband.” - roshni
“One thing I noticed this fall - Barack Obama consistently looked supporters in the eye as he shook their hands during the campaign. People would post about it as well, so I know it was not my imagination! Contrast that to film clips of Palin working the rope, and you’ll see that she had this kind of frantic look about her - no looking at people’s eyes, simply looking for those open doors that she could plow through…” - sonomarc
“The famous “terrorist fist jab” pic said it all to me. The instant I saw it, I thought “that’s how I want a woman to look at me.” Well, actually the thought that ran through my head was “that dude’s SO getting laid tonight,” but it amounts to the same thing. That’s not a look at, that’s a look right through. Lucky man.” - ElBruce
“Oh God I want to be in this family. I’m 32 years old and I’ve never wished my family life was different; one learns to accept what one has. But the more I see this family, the more it hurts. I wish I was Malia or Sasha. I can’t believe I envy a 6-year-old. Deeply. — just another black girl from a broken home.” - karinova
“I am a white guy from the Bronx and I feel the same as you. Maybe they will adopt us?” - Ed Shapiro
TIME magazine has compiled an online gallery of its best Barack Obama photographs. Which is great, as long as you have the patience to work through the supreeeemely irritating ad that appears between every picture. No mind: here are my favourites:
All of the photos above - bar the one of Michelle and Barack backstage at the Bruce Springsteen/Billy Joel concert - were taken by Callie Shell. As was this one, which I just love, but which didn’t make it into TIME’s gallery:
You can see more of Shell’s brilliant photographs from the campaign trail here (note: keep clicking ‘Show more images’). In fact, it’s better than the TIME gallery because the pictures are larger, and include fascinating insights from Shell. There are also no supreeemely irritating ads. 
So how many of these do you want me to bring back with me?
(Coming next: limited edition 2012 London Olympics Oyster cards.)
I said the other day how important the internet has been during this election; that it’s been the first truly 21st century election.
Andrew Sullivan takes it a logical step further:
“I don’t believe that Obama would have ever been able to become president in the era before the Internet.”
I think he could be right. Although not so much in the sense of the money raised, but more importantly in the spreading of information. Can you imagine how the African-American candidate Barack Obama would have fared in a country dominated by the agenda of Fox News and right-wing radio talk shows? With no blogs, no independent news sites and no YouTube to back up his case, spread information and correct lies told about him? Doesn’t bear thinking about, does it? Hurrah for this here interweb thingy!
My local newsagent stocks Newsweek:
Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek, was on The Daily Show on Wednesday night, in fact - talking about both his new book (about President Andrew Jackson) and the magazine’s inside scoop on this year’s election (that’s why I bought it, incidentally. I’m not just arbitrarily buying up magazines with BHO on the cover):
The Rachel Maddow Show - which is still missing Rachel Maddow (I like to imagine that she’s sunning herself on a Mexican beach with Keith Olbermann right now) - covered the latest on the Bill/Hillary Clinton story on Monday night:
Say what you like about the Obama team, but at least they’re applying the same standards to absolutely everybody who wants a job in the new White House administration. To wit, the final section on their application form:
“Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the president-elect.”
All the Bill shenanigans aside: it’s a bit of a tricky one, that, eh? I mean, who’s to know what Barack himself would find embarrassing? Let alone your own family, without declaring it to them in the first place. Are people telling their loved ones about all the naughty things they’ve got up to, in case they get a job in the White House (and imagine how gutting it would be to tell your folks about that incident with the goat, only to not even get an interview for that internship)? Or are applicants just revealing all on this form - and if so, are the HR team at Obama HQ, in fact, acting like a confession box? Wow. I mean, I know he’s not the Messiah. But who knew Barack was so pope-like?
The man is Eric Holder. Here’s the story.
Want to know what happened when Barry met Johnny? Here you go:
And here was the eminently sensible Bill Maher’s take on it, via The Rachel Maddow Show. Sorry: The Arianna Huffington Show (Note to MSNBC: this woman certainly has great views, and can certainly write. But please, please, please never get her to anchor a show again. She doesn’t have what might be called a voice for radio):
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