Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Omens

Let me make 2 things clear first: I like President Obama and I don't actually believe in omens. But back in the old days (the really old days), at the beginning of any major undertaking, you looked for omens to see how it would turn out.

There's a famous story about William the Conqueror (you know, Norman Invasion, 1066 and all that) tripping and falling face down in the sand as he first set foot on England's shores. All his men were aghast because that was a horrible omen. But he turned it to good by rising with his fists full of mud and declaring, "In this way I seize England!"

Even though we are so very much more sophisticated and knowledgeable these days, it is not beyond us to glance around for omens out the corners of our jaded, modern eyes. Like during Presidential inaugurations, for instance.

At John Kennedy's inauguration in 1961 the lectern caught fire during the invocation and Robert Frost couldn't read the poem he wrote because of the snowy glare (but like William he turned that to good by reciting the very appropriate "Gift Outright" from memory). These were seen by some as bad omens for the Kennedy administration.

When Ronald Reagan took office many were struck by the fact that dark clouds parted and a shaft of sunlight beamed down as he took the oath of office. And despite several storms during his 8 years he did have a pretty good run.

Today, though the weather was nice and we had a marvelous, uplifting inauguration, I couldn't help but notice that the Chief Justice messed up the oath and Senator Ted Kennedy collapsed at the Inaugural Luncheon.

And Obama's speech was kind of, well, clunky. For him anyway. The ideas were certainly what we needed to hear but I was looking for a speech that would make, "Ask not" and, "Nothing to fear but fear itself" look like school boy essays, something that would blow our socks off. Something that would "sing," as an NPR commentator put it. To me his "This Was The Moment" speech from last summer was much more what was needed.

Can a clunky inaugural address be a bad omen? Maybe not.. particularly when the image of him standing on the podium vested with all the power and authority of President "sings" louder and truer than any address.

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UPDATE (1/21/09 8:50 PM): The Chief Justice has stopped by the White House to correctly recite the magic spell that transforms ordinary Senators into Presidents of the United States. As every good Harry Potter aficionado knows, reading it wrong runs the risk of changing you into a newt. That's one bad omen averted, at least.


UPDATE (1/22/09 12:37 PM): Then again... can you seriously expect to avert a bad omen if you say the mighty spell without the enchanted book? President Obama didn't bring (gasp!) a Bible. And you know who the only President not to swear on a Bible was, don't you? Franklin Pierce -- the most pitiable of all Presidents!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I found Obama's less than perfect pledge entertaining, if not adorable at the very least. "Clunky" would not be the word I would use to describe his speech, however a few other adjectives do come to mind: passionate, inspiring and uplifting.

He had a lot to say. Let's just hope he can keep his at least half his promises and not be a complete let down...

Anonymous said...

I found Obama's pledge entertaining, if not a adorable at the very least. "Clunky" would not be the word I would use to describe his speech. A few others adjectives however spring to mind : inspiring, passionate and uplifting.

He had rather a lot to say. Lets just hope that he can keep at least half his promises and not be a complete dissapointment...

Anonymous said...

I found Obama's pledge entertaining, if not a adorable at the very least. "Clunky" would not be the word I would use to describe his speech. A few others adjectives however spring to mind : inspiring, passionate and uplifting.

He had rather a lot to say. Lets just hope that he can keep at least half his promises and not be a complete dissapointment...

Anonymous said...

I found Obama's pledge entertaining, if not a adorable at the very least. "Clunky" would not be the word I would use to describe his speech. A few others adjectives however spring to mind : inspiring, passionate and uplifting.

He had rather a lot to say. Lets just hope that he can keep at least half his promises and not be a complete dissapointment...

Pleonic said...

It was a good speech; I was just expecting more for this occasion. But "clunky" from Obama is still better than the best most other Presidents can do.