The Inaugural Balls

By Jeralyn, Section Obama Administration
Posted on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 12:05:11 PM EST
Tags: Obama Inauguration (all tags)

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MTV's Inaugural Ball for President Clinton in 1993 was as good as they get: Michael Stipe of REM, Natalie Merchant (then of 10,000 Maniacs) and Don Henley ("Democracy" here). Bill and Hillary and Al and Tipper made memorable appearances.

Fast-forward 16 years and it's definitely a change. The two biggest musical events will be the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday afternoon in D.C. and the Youth Inaugural Ball, from which MTV and Service Nation will host their own event, Be the Change, on Tuesday night.[More...]

The "We are One" concert will be re-played Sunday night on HBO. It will be free to all cable and satellite subscribers. It features:

U2, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Bruce Springsteen, Usher, Will.I.Am, John Mellencamp, Shakira, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow and Josh Groban.

Headlining the Youth Inaugural/MTV/Service Nation event: Kanye West, Kid Rock and Fall Out Boy. It will air live Tuesday night on all MTV channels.

At the actual Inaugural Ball, Beyonce will perform for Obama's first dance. She'll sing the Etta James song, At Last. You can watch her singing it here.

< Power Lawyer in Obama Aministration | NYTimes Poll: Obama Holds Americans' Confidence and Patience >

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The Inaugural Balls | 58 comments (58 topical)

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There's a lot of energy out there. (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by EL seattle on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 12:14:11 PM EST

And eveyone deserves a celebration.

I'd hope that some of that energy might also get focused on a few things that don't need direct presidential leadership. Like, say, supporting the repeal of the death penalty in as many states as possible.

It's a depression outside Washington (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by koshembos on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 12:58:12 PM EST

The celebrations are understandable; first black president and Bush is gone. The lavish balls, the bars full of people, while out there foreclosures and unemployment in ever increasing numbers.

Somehow celebrating while Rome is burning yet again smells strange.

No doubt (5.00 / 2) (#3)
by JThomas on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 01:11:13 PM EST

it is hard times out here..but to not celebrate a new president would be a mistake. As FDR said, nothing to fear but fear itself...we have to regain our confidence as a nation,an economy and if we go into a shell, and retreat from our history of resilency as a nation, we are lost.


: celebrating (5.00 / 1) (#22)
by lentinel on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:15:44 PM EST

I celebrate the departure from Washington of Bush, Cheney and Rice. Good riddance.
I'll celebrate the new president when and if he does anything worth celebrating.

Things suck (5.00 / 0) (#28)
by indy in sc on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 05:02:16 PM EST

for a lot of people in a lot of ways right now. We need to celebrate what we can. I think inauguration day and the few days leading up to it are the time to celebrate the promise of what can be.

On January 21st, I'll be back to "what have you done for me lately" with Obama, the congress, my state and local leaders and myself (though I'll be much easier on myself ;)). Til then I'm gonna party like its 1999.


Or - even worse... (none / 0) (#5)
by lentinel on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 01:32:30 PM EST

It's like the Germans raising their beer steins and singing while the carnage continued.


"Be the change"....????? (5.00 / 7) (#4)
by lentinel on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 01:28:58 PM EST

I don't know.
These "change" slogans get weirder and weirder.

But this one, which I believe is the latest, seems to put the responsibility for change on us, the folks who put Obama in office.

He's the one who is supposed to change things.

We have been trying to end the goddam war in Iraq for at least five years. The Dean candidacy imploded, and Kerry wouldn't represent us. Then in 2006, we voted in a democratic congress with the specific mandate of ending the war in Iraq. Obama, of course, to repeat what we all know but refused to take in, campaigned for Lieberman. Pelosi and Reid went along with Bush to send even more troops in. And that's where we are now.

To the extent that Obama's election was as a result of grassroots efforts and monetary donations (and I'm not sure it was) it is up to him to honor that effort by producing the change that he promised he would.

Now he's saying, via his slogan --- "You do it. You be the change that I said I was".

He's blaming the victims - us.

"Be the change" also just sounds dumb - semi-literate.
It's sounds like "Me Tarzan, you Jane".

I'm hopeful we might recover (5.00 / 2) (#6)
by SOS on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 01:39:29 PM EST

but not in the mood for "mass entertainment", reveling, and partying.


: In a (none / 0) (#12)
by Fabian on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:15:46 PM EST

party before the apocalypse way, I am.

Um, it's an abbreviated Gandhi quote... (5.00 / 4) (#11)
by Addison on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:05:12 PM EST

...not an indication of some lazy, pre-determined dismissal of all his responsibility. Far less is the invocation of Gandhi a "blame the victims" moment. I mean, c'mon, try harder.


Do you have the full quote? (5.00 / 1) (#14)
by nycstray on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:33:00 PM EST

I'm not sure I'm familiar with it. "Be the Change" just sounded like another play on the change message that we have seen a few of over the past year or so.


Try Google (5.00 / 0) (#15)
by squeaky on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:39:40 PM EST

Be the change is an invitation to become active.


I can just see the T-shirts now . . . . (5.00 / 1) (#17)
by nycstray on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:48:24 PM EST

"Be the Change!" and underneath in smaller print "use teh google"


Or In Your Case (3.00 / 2) (#19)
by squeaky on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:57:08 PM EST

"Why Bother, I Voted Hillary"


OMG!!! (5.00 / 4) (#20)
by nycstray on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:06:46 PM EST

I wasn't aware Hillary was on the ballot, shoot!

Back to the quote though (since this has NOTHING to do with my vote or Hillary deflection), there have been enough change slogans, that without referencing the origin of the quote, it looks like just another rollout of a campaign slogan (yes, he is still campaigning and will continue per his boyz). If someone is going to do the "umm it's a so and so quote", they should include the source/quote. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that doesn't have all quotes memorized.


Not On The Ballot (1.50 / 2) (#23)
by squeaky on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:22:27 PM EST

On your tee shirt though, It would sum up your position regarding Obama, imo, much more than "use teh google".

And I certainly did not suggest that I or anyone has all great leaders quotes memorized. I thought it ironic, and telling, that rather than being active and googling "Ghandi, Be the Change" you chose to act passive and act helpless. It is obviously your form of resistance to Obama's clinching the Dem Nomination and POTUS.


I didn't feel like doing a google search (5.00 / 6) (#24)
by nycstray on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:32:18 PM EST

I felt it was more up to the commenter that tossed out the reference.

Passive and helpless?! My, you seem to really be going for the ultimate a** today. And since you seem to like to put everyone in the same category and then make up what they are 'feeling/doing", let me throw some water on it. I am not resistant to Obama being president. I think it's pretty f*cking obvious he is going to be as of Tuesday and my opportunity to voice my opinion in the matter was on certain Tuesday in Nov. OTOH, just because he's going to be president, doesn't mean I'm going to throw my brain out the window and just follow along. For the LAST TIME, I do NOT want him to fail. We CAN'T afford for him to. Doesn't mean I have to agree with everything he does though, so just stop your crap with me. It's very tiresome and is making you look darn petty. I thought you were smarter than that.


Say What You Want (1.50 / 2) (#25)
by squeaky on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:41:14 PM EST

I still think it is hillarious and dripping with irony, that your brain ruled out finding out Ghandi's quote on your own when the quote was all about resisting helplessness.

Perhaps your lack of interest in anything remotely positive regarding Obama is so reflexive at this point that you are unaware, if so you can thank me for pointing it out to you.


Time constraints and common courtesy (none / 0) (#29)
by nycstray on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 05:05:59 PM EST

Time constraints on me, if I start googling quotes, I'll prob get distracted and spend too much time vs the quick breaks I'm taking while waiting for things to print.

Common courtesy, supplying reference when referring to things, just thought that's what people did {shrug}

Glad to know you think another campaign slogan from Obama is positive. Is this positive change? Or progress?

I'm not in the habit of thanking those who are out just out to stir up sh!t or simply be rude for lack of anything else. Plus, you have a serious reading comprehension problem, or is it just the inability to accept other's truths that don't fit into the truth you would like to create?


Not Buying It (none / 0) (#32)
by squeaky on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 05:23:15 PM EST

Googling "Ghandi Be The change", is quicker than typing your question, and waiting for a response, unless you were just being snarky and could care less about finding about the origin of quote.


: get a room guys (5.00 / 1) (#39)
by Jeralyn on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 05:44:36 PM EST

thanks.

When Hillary appears... (1.00 / 1) (#46)
by weltec2 on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 08:21:49 PM EST

they should play "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow":

If you wake up and dont want to smile,
If it takes just a little while,
Open your eyes and look at the day,
You'll see things in a different way.

But no... they won't do that... unfortunately.


: This was not (none / 0) (#52)
by weltec2 on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 11:20:03 PM EST

at all intended in a negative way. I have always been and still am a Clinton supporter.

Quotation from Gandhi (5.00 / 1) (#16)
by Politalkix on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:45:45 PM EST

"You must be the change you want to see in the world."


Thanks! (5.00 / 1) (#18)
by nycstray on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 02:49:53 PM EST

Quoting Ghandi (5.00 / 3) (#21)
by lentinel on Sat Jan 17, 2009 at 03:09:17 PM EST

I have two reactions to this quote.

The first is: the people nominated and elected someone who said he was going to change things. This took some effort. People did something within the system to try to bring about change. In this respect, they already beed the change.

The second is: Ghandi believed in civil disobedience. He was rallying people to force a change in the behavior of the British colonialists - or their complete expulsion from India.

I don't think this is what Obama is suggesting. I think he's saying that there's not much he can or will do. He wants to let the rich folks keep their tax cuts, but he want the rest of us to give and give some more.

But - what the heck. Let's assume that he's referencing Ghandi.
Let's begin advocating and practicing civil disobedience.

If he refuses to stop the war in Iraq - or moves to start new ones, let's take his advice and begin endless demonstrations. Let's tie up traffic. Let's block entrances to airports. Let's refuse to pay taxes - or at least the portion of the taxes that go to supporting the war machine. I'm sure Obama will be pleased that we are beginning to behave differently. Active and not passive. Disrupting the smooth functioning of government.

Great idea.
Thanks.


: wow (5.00 / 1) (