We’re live from my living room on this Tuesday January 20, 2009 for the Inauguration of our 44th President Barack Hussein Obama! Let’s get right to it:

9:45 am: Vice Presidential wives make their way to the limos, followed soon after by the Vice Presidents. Cheney in a wheelchair? I know he supposedly hurt himself, but you just can’t make pure evil look any more sympathetic. Good try though, Dick.

9:47 am: Presidential wives make their way to their limo… Michelle looking her best as usual. And here are our President and President-Elect! And we’re only 5 minutes behind schedule. Excellent. How awkward will this limo ride be? As much as I would like to be in DC for this, I wouldn’t want to be in that particular spot for the next few minutes.

11:00 am: The President and President-Elect arrive at the Capitol. The Supreme Court, other dignitaries and former Presidents arriving… and George H.W. Bush looks OLD. And a cane? This man still jumps out of airplanes for God’s sake! Though the purple scarves he and Barbara are sporting are a very nice, if subtle, political gesture.

11:25 am: Still waiting for the guests of honor…

11:30 am: Wow, people are actually booing shots of W showing on the jumbotrons, which drowns out the introduction of Michelle Obama. Surprisingly bad form.

11:34 am: Current President, VP and Republican leadership get a lukewarm greeting (I’m being generous)… Bush looks lost up there, like he really just does not want to be there.

11:36 am: VP-Elect Biden arrives with the Democratic leadership to a roaring ovation. As expected. No Nancy Pelosi though… Weird.

11:37 am: And there’s Nancy! Walking ahead of the President-Elect, along with the Senate and House Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Majority Leader, and House Minority Leader. Interesting combo.

11:41 am: Obama arrives to enormous cheers, with the whole crowd waving these small American flags that were given out. What an incredible site. Thankfully our MSNBC commentators deemed his arrival an appropriate time to stay silent.

11:44 am: Diane Feinstein pontificates for a little while here, talking about America’s struggle against racism… Now, it might just be me, but the media has been all over this since Election Day, I think we get how historical it is.

11:46 am: Rick Warren delivers our invocation… Very emotional and not really as bad as many people thought. Not that his prejudices or bigotry should be overlooked, but he was good today.

11:51 am: ARETHA! (Singing My Country Tis of Thee)

11:55 am: Associate Justice John Paul Stevens is brought to the podium to swear-in VP-Elect Joe Biden.

11:56 am: Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is now our Vice President.

11:58 am: YO-YO MA! (and others) for another musical interlude, arranged by the same man who brought you the Imperial March and all other Star Wars music, John Williams.

12:02 pm: Senator Feinstein introduces Chief Justice Roberts to swear in Barack Obama as our 44th President.

12:03 pm: “I Barack Hussein Obama do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God."

12:04 pm: After a bit of a rocky oath, we have a new President… And I couldn’t be more pleased. 21 gun salute in the background… crazy. On to the speech.

12:26 pm: President Obama finishes up a tight, 21 minute speech, and it was a homerun. A call to service and responsibility that addressed a lot of our current issues, with a smattering of Washington and Lincoln to go right along. Some highlights:

“The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.”- So much for your big-government big-spending Democrat, right? While I’m sure there will be massive amounts of money spent, he is making a pledge of responsibility that has been absent for so long.

Perhaps my favorite section of the speech: “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.”- Want to talk about a direct repudiation of the behavior of the last eight years? Especially amazing considering the fact that Bush was sitting just a few feet away. It was fulfilling to hear President Obama say that, that which, sadly, needed to be said.

To conclude, with the President’s words: “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.”