A Super Dooper American Trooper

On Tuesday, January 20th, 2009, an event occurred that will go down in the history books forever as the day when Barack Obama became the first black man to be sworn in as President of the United States. As almost every news channel covered the Inauguration and the newly elected President's every movement following from 10 am to 5pm, millions of viewers tuned in to witness this historical event. NBC alone led with the most views of 11.5 million people, followed by ABC (11 million) and CBS (7.2 million).
However, due to my class schedule, I was unable to watch the entire Inauguration and only got to tune in to the very end of his speech. I had just finished my first class and was going out to lunch with my friend Eileen at the Watterson Towers food court. Upon entering, I was suprised to see that every TV in the cafeteria was showing coverage of the Inauguration with the volume cranked up for all to hear Obama's speech. I quickly ordered my food and grabbed a table, hoping to catch some sort of slip up or goof that Obama might make that would serve as my entertainment. However, I was reminded once again of Obama's phenominal public speaking abilities as he not only spoke error free, but he did not once have to look down at any note cards or prepared outline. He spoke with booming confidence and appeared to make an effort to look into the eyes of each American citizen that made up the ocean of people all around him. Such a display of confidence like that made me feel confident that nomatter how bad things are or how many people think he is underqualified for the Presidency, Obama will do ok. While I know that there are many die hard Republicans out there who still hold a grudge and cannot let if go that McCain lost, you cannot deny that Obama's speech was one full of hope and genuine concern for America's future. I was very impressed.
Once Obama had finished speaking and the volume was turned back down to allow the students to talk amongst themselves, Eileen and I talked about Obama's confidence and reflected on how many times he mentioned "Founding Fathers" or whether or not he mentioned Martin Luther King Jr. As we watched Obama shake the hands of other senators and the former President George W. Bush and his wife, we added our own dialog as making fun of George W. is one of my favorite things to do in my pass time.