Inauguration Parties

[LizzieMaine]

http://knox.villagesoup.com/Community/story.cfm?storyID=142948

We ended up having to turn away nearly 300 people -- we probably could have filled the house twice over. Absolutely unprecedented.

 

[Dr Doran]

Very well Rufus, I will tell you what I saw Tuesday morning on the University of California, Berkeley campus.

First of all, huge crowd, as the new President is very, very popular with this population. Probably many thousands of people. This was on Sproul Plaza. Many people got in at 7:30 AM since we are on the West Coast.

No counter-demonstration: the opposition party was classy enough to allow the Democrats to feel happy and to allow the effort at national unity be unspoiled by oppositional demonstrations.

A huge video screen. Huge. The crowd was so big that lots and lots of people could not see the video screen at all, but wanted to be present for the event. Many people continued to pour in.

Lots of blacks in the crowd were hugging, cheering, weeping. This was very touching. I got called Dick Tracy once, but the man who called me that was black and he was literally giddy with excitement and not meaning it in a derogatory way.

When the ex-President got into his huge helicopter and waved goodbye, many people in the Berkeley crowd waved goodbye.

(NB please note the absence of any political sentiment in this post -- let us keep this thread viable!)

 

[Rufus]

Thanks for the reportage Mr D and Lizziemaine!

The closest I think we got to anything remotely similiar was Blair's first election, as it was such a landslide victory, and it surprised even the winners. There were some crowds in Whitehall (where Downing Street is) But not the sort of euphoria I've seen on news reports from the USA.

Whatever your politics are, it must be exciting living there in the USA right now.

(All the above meant and intended with no political bias..)