The Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama was the first inauguration I have watched in over a decade, and I am glad I watched it. Around 10 am or so yesterday we decided at work we would setup a projector in the office lunch room, get Pizza and as a group watch the inauguration; and it was quite a show.
The thing that strikes me the most is how engaging he is as a speaker, his innate ability to capture the attention of his audience and maintain it throughout the length of his oration. President Obama is an orator in every sense, and it is good to have a literate, articulate well spoken President back in the White House. But my captivation with his speaking abilities isn't what's interesting; it's my kids.
After dinner (and homework) the boys are playing on their computer jabbering away at some Flash game on BubbleBox.com, and my oldest notices I am watching the inauguration on tv and we start talking about where we were this morning and that we were both watching the TV and the inauguration. I'm glad to see they did this in his school, I wouldn't have expected it – not here. Anyway, my kids have been transfixed during this entire election on Obama – that's the only candidate would they would talk about, that's who they wanted us to vote for. So after a while and lots more jabbering and babbling, the boys start talking about how they want to go to the White House so they can meet and talk to the President and maybe Mommy will let them skip school tomorrow and they all can just drive to DC to do just that.
I don't know how wide spread this is or isn't, but I do find it interesting that the one thing that they have consistently talked about for well over a year now is a Presidential Candidate and now the President.