President Obama and his family are in their American-manufactured limo proceeding slowly along the parade route.

MSNBC reports that Senator Ted Kennedy, who has been in vigorous good spirits, fell ill at the Senate luncheon and was taken from the room on a stretcher.

Just because Justice Roberts misspoke a little, doesn’t mean that there are any legal problems with President Obama’s oath of office. Everybody relax!

What surprised me about Obama’s inaugural speech was what a stinging rebuke of Republicanism it was, in particular, Bush era Republicanism, especially in its stark rejection of the notions that the “free market” cures all ills and that the rule of law should be sacrificed in the name of security.

It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that Barack Hussein Obama is now President of the United States. 

The notion of American exceptionalism has been used to rationalize everything from Manifest Destiny to our current forays into nation building, and it frequently goes hand in hand with the idea that the West in in decline.  But the faces of the two million people on the mall today, standing as  proxies for the 63 million who turned out to vote for Barack Obama last November, are testament to the fact that America is not doomed to decline but rather fully able to reinvent herself in the twenty-first century.   As a people we are capable of shaking off antiquated notions, failed ideas and ideolgies, our prejudices and our obsolete certitudes as we see them to be inadequate to address the profound challenges before us.

We now have a President whose experience is informed by a multiracial, multicultural and international heritage.  Never before has there been a world leader of Obama’s stature who reflects the face of an increasingly globally interdependent planet, whose very existence fundamentally challenges the narrow assumptions of class and race that have determined a narrow corridor of ideas that have limited our palate of choices.  As he assumes the American Presidency, we have shown that we are still vigorous enough to show true leadership as we open up not only our own country but the world to the talented individuals and the leadership with which we can reinvigorate ourselves.

If America is truly an exceptional nation, there is no clearer manifestation of that than the fact that we had the courage to elect Barack Obama.

Biden being sworn in.

Looks like an orderly transfer of power. We’ve worked and sacrificed to make this day possible. Can we breathe now?

Lots of people out there–and it’s not pretty.

I’m looking at the crowd on TV already swelling at the National Mall in 18 degree weather and thinking many have got to be hurting from lack of sleep and too much fun. Last night the biggest challenge was not getting into the parties but getting to them as police blocked off one road after another in anticipation of today’s festivities.

There is an interesting article published in today’s New York Times, and the upshot is that 3 wins and 23 losses is exactly what the Bush/Cheney regime’s record is when their Guantanamo Detainee cases see the light of a court in habeas cases. And in most excellent news, Neal Katyal will be Obama’s Deputy Solicitor General.