The Inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden

TIME's Michael Grunwald, Karen Tumulty and James Poniewozik were here live to cover this historic event. As always, your comments are welcome, so please log in to submit.

All times listed below are Eastern Standard Time (EST).

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Michael Grunwald - 5:59 p.m.: They've just pointed out on cnn that out of crisis comes opportunity. Yes, it's time to go before the pundits start reading scripts consisting entirely of fortune cookies.

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Karen Tumulty - 5:56 p.m.: Okay, guys, as I said earlier: Obama delivered the Hope. I think today was all about reminding us that the Change is going to be a lot harder.

I'm all out of cliches to sum this up. It has been fun sharing it with you both, and I look forward to getting the gang together for the next epochal event. Which should be some time in the next week or so.

And our very best wishes go out to Senator Ted Kennedy.

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James Poniewozik - 5:56 p.m.: OK, now that it's dawning on Barack Obama and the rest of us just how many states, and their marching bands, that he is now in charge of, it's probably a good time to check out. It has been historic, unprecedented, epochal, &c., liveblogging with you. See you in four years!

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Michael Grunwald - 5:53 p.m.: We're watching fox too. It was interesting hearing them explain how hoover's big-government liberalism caused the depression (just like bush!) and fdr's bigger-government liberalism (just like obama!) made it great.

I went to school with John Yoo. Nice guy. Good sense of humor. Never struck me as the torturing type.

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James Poniewozik - 5:50 p.m.: Beck to Yoo on Guantanamo detainees: "And now they're talking about trying them in the courts! What does that do to our [justice] system?" Um... respects... it?

(Sorry, wrong answer. Correct answer: brings the system crashing down and ensures the shipment of terrorists to your neighborhood!)

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James Poniewozik - 5:48 p.m.: On Fox News, the new Glenn Beck show is bringing the adversarial with a panel examining Obama's campaign promises from three diverse perspectives: should government be small, smaller or smallest? Up next: let's see what John Yoo thinks of Obama's Guantanamo policy!

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Michael Grunwald - 5:40 p.m.: @jp: It's too bad that they had to lay off the entire percussion section, but I'm glad bush gave them $350 billion to go buy some smaller bands.

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James Poniewozik - 5:38 p.m.: On CNN's giant satellite picture, the crowds of people at the Inauguration look like big spreading splotches of mold on a slice of bread.

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Michael Grunwald - 5:37 p.m.: @kt: I think unicorns are overrated, too. But I do like apple pie.

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James Poniewozik - 5:36 p.m.: It's the University of Michigan marching band! Hail to the Victors! I now temporarily love parades again!

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Karen Tumulty - 5:34 p.m.: Does anyone else think it is awk-ward that CNN has future Surgeon General Sanjay Gupta on the air as an analyst? Is this a medical assessment, or a statement of Administration policy?

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Karen Tumulty - 5:32 p.m.: @MG: Do you like unicorns? Everyone likes unicorns.

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Michael Grunwald - 5:31 p.m.: @kt: Whatever. I liked the parade in Animal House-that's about it. I don't like fireworks, either. Or financial catastrophes.

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James Poniewozik - 5:29 p.m.: One of the most amazing things today is hearing one of Obama's address themes--that we need to leave behind the polarizing shouting matches and culture wars--being praised repeatedly by... Pat Buchanan.

He's shouting his praise, true, but still.

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Karen Tumulty - 5:28 p.m.: @MG: And horses! There are HORSES!

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Karen Tumulty - 5:24 p.m.: @MG: Killjoy. I LOVE marching bands. In 2000, the sight of my alma mater University of Texas Longhorn band in the inaugural parade made me burst into tears. I like floats almost as much.

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Michael Grunwald - 5:21 p.m.: It will come as a shock to all of you that I don't like parades. So I hadn't planned to blog the hoopla. But I saw that bank stocks crashed again today, and I really believe everything I was saying before about this epic crisis, so as I watched President Obama flashing that hipster hang-five gesture at the hawaiian marching band, I did have one thought:

Get to work, dude!

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James Poniewozik - 5:15 p.m.: One of the most important Constitutional duties of the President, of course, is to review the nation's papier-mache heads of Abraham Lincoln.

Another point for Katie Couric: shutting down Douglas Brinkley on another of the day's long rambles about Presidential history: "TMI on William Henry Harrison!" (Harrison, is famous for having his Inauguration in a winter storm, catching ill, and dying in office shortly thereafter—and thus becoming a regular anecdote at every inauguration since.)

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Karen Tumulty - 5:08 p.m.: CNN's google-y satellite image isn't nearly as cool as I thought it would be.

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Karen Tumulty - 5:02 p.m.: Politico reporting:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Jr., who suffered an apparent seizure at today's inaugural luncheon for Barack Obama, is “awake and answering questions” at the Washington Hospital Center, a hospital spokeswoman says.

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James Poniewozik - 4:58 p.m.: Katie Couric is funny! Catching herself rambling about the Disney inaugural concert last night with Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, she says, "I feel like a reporter for Tiger Beat magazine."

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James Poniewozik - 4:54 p.m.: Whatever happens in the cable-news ratings, it's going to be interesting watching Fox news for a while now. I just heard Neil Cavuto refer to a Democrat as ""the most popular new President since FDR." And yes, Reagan came between the two. That may just be a reference to objective poll numbers, but still, it's something to hear him say it. Without breaking anything.

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James Poniewozik - 4:29 p.m.: @KT: Rachel Maddow: "I feel a little cold just looking at her." The benefit to that cold—you walk fast. Work off that brace of American birds!

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Karen Tumulty - 4:12 p.m.: Obamas are back in the car. One time, when I was covering Obama in Indiana, I accidentally wandered into the space between Obama and his security car. Suffice it to say the Secret Service was very, very unhappy with me.

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Karen Tumulty - 4:07 p.m.: Right now, Michelle is wishing she had worn a different coat. One that buttons up.

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James Poniewozik - 4:06 p.m.: Obama steps out of the limo. Big screams. Jonas Brothers-level screams. If I could make a crowd go into fits like this every time I stepped out of a car, it would be hard not to do this All. The Time.

And yet this must be the kind of moment that gives the Secret Service ulcers on top of their ulcers.

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Karen Tumulty - 3:09 p.m.: At the Capitol lunch in his honor, President Barack Obama confirmed the reports that Ted Kennedy—who had looked so pale at the inaugural ceremony—had collapsed. Kennedy, who is suffering from brain cancer, had given Obama's presidential campaign a crucial boost a year ago, when he had endorsed him in his primary bid against Hillary Clinton.

Noting that Kennedy had been there when the Voting Rights Act had passed in 1965, Obama said: “Right now, a part of me is with him.”

That history could hardly be more resonant on this day. Kennedy had indeed fought hard for the Voting Rights Act, which had passed in the wake of violence in Selma, Alabama. It prohibited states from putting any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure ... to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.

But what Kennedy called his “maiden speech” in the Senate—his first major address from the floor—had come the year before in 1964, on the Civil Rights Act, where he invoked the fresh memory of his assassinated brother: “My brother was the first President of the United States to state publicly that segregation was morally wrong,” Ted said. “His heart and his soul are in this bill. If his life and death had a meaning, it was that we should not hate but love one another; we should use our powers not to create conditions of oppression that lead to violence, but conditions of freedom that lead to peace.”

The civil rights bill had gone down in filibuster 11 times before. This time, it passed—largely because of backroom maneuvering between Republican Everett Dirksen and Democrat Hubert Humphrey to mustered the 27 GOP votes it took to avert yet another death-by-filibuster at the hands of Southern Democrats.

Watching how that deal came together was one of the formative political experiences of Ted Kennedy's political career. Forty years later, on the anniversary of that act, Kennedy noted: “The Senate came together, across party lines, to live up to America's best ideals.”

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James Poniewozik - 2:59 p.m.: Several outlets are now reporting—and President Obama just mentioned—that it was Sen. Edward Kennedy, in treatment for brain cancer, who took ill at the luncheon and was escorted out.

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James Poniewozik - 2:47 p.m.: Actual news at the Inaugural lunch? CNN is reporting that a senator has "collapsed" at the luncheon; it says it has received conflicting reports as to who the senator was, so unlike them I won't repeat the one name they mentioned until there's some sort of confirmation.

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James Poniewozik - 2:44 p.m.: Guess what John King got for Christmas! On CNN, King is showing off the latest gadget to replace his campaign-era Magic Wall. The network asked viewers to send in photos of the moment Obama became president, which have been stitched together on a touchscreen to make a 3-D image that King is delving into, Minority-Report-style. He taps and he can zoom out. He taps, and he can zoom back in. It's kind of like... a really big photograph!

Actually, the 3-D pull-out effect looks like it may be more cool if I played with it online—if it did not melt the brain of my time.com laptop—but this is one of those cases where the computer may beat TV.

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James Poniewozik - 1:47 p.m.: A comment, from my colleague and TIME movie critic Richard Corliss, re the line about forty-four Americans having taken the Presidential oath: "No, 43. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th President, since Benjamin Harrison won in 1888 (though Cleveland took the popular vote)."

Of course, everyone now knows that his second term was actually served by Robot Grover Cleveland.

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Karen Tumulty - 1:24 p.m.: The new White House website is already up.

(H/T commenter Dunedweller)

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James Poniewozik - 1:21 p.m.: On CNN, I am watching Senators eat lunch. Time to grab a sandwich, as, sadly, I have no one to prepare "a brace of American birds" for me.

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James Poniewozik - 1:08 p.m.: @MG: They weren't booing. They were chanting, "BOOOOOOOOOOSH!"

To play political analyst briefly: It was not a rhetorical barn-burner of a speech. But it reminds me of how, during the campaign, many of the moments that seemed underwhelming to those looking for fireworks--I'm think especially his debate performances--worked best politically for Obama BECAUSE they were low-key. That is, they communicated calm and competence. The uber-message of this speech seemed to be pragmatism, which is another of the values that worked well for him in the campaign. Enough of big vs. small government, enough of the culture wars, enough of my side versus your side, enough of you are either with us or against us—enough of that crap, let's focus on what works. Whether it is motivational we'll see, but I suspect it was intentional.

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Michael Grunwald - 1:02 p.m.: Bill Bennett says the booing of bush and cheney was uncalled for. I think I've heard enough.

In summary: a wonderful speech, although it should have been half as long. (Save the laundry lists for sotu!) It was a political speech about the end of a shocking era of irresponsibility and misgovernment and a shared responsibility to undo it. It was not a look-at-me speech, and it didn't harp on race. It wasn't an america-sucks speech either. It was a traditionalist speech. It called for a return to old values after eight years of dangerous radicalism. It made a smart and marvelous case for hope: BECAUSE we've gotten over the bitter swill of slavery and segregation, we know we can get out of this mess too.

Anyway, as anyone who's ever replaced a failure knows, obama's in an enviable position right now. It will be interesting to see if he really does try to reform the habits of dc, as he specifically said he would. it will also be interesting to see if the republican party can reinvent itself, or if it ends up going the way of the federalists.

Now they're talking about how gracious obama was to see the bushes off. I'm surprised he isn't personally flying them back to texas to make sure they're really gone.

Biden just made a little good-riddance salute. Now I'm going to do the same. It was fun getting the band back together, guys. And I think max enjoyed his first tv experience. it's always touching when a kid meets his new babysitter...

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James Poniewozik - 1:00 p.m.: Drudge now backpedaling: "Obama AND CHIEF JUSTICE flub oath..."

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James Poniewozik - 12:54 p.m.: Matthews and Olbermann battling to see who remembers the most details about the movie Advise and Consent.

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James Poniewozik - 12:48 p.m.: Fox News unimpressed with the speech on a "literary level": too many cliches on the order of "raging storms," "gathering clouds," etc.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:43 p.m.: Look at him rushing out like he's got work to do. Kind of brushes off bush. Doesn't even have time to chitchat with Rep. Lewis. You get the feeling he's used to being the coolest guy at the party - even when there are 2 million people at the party.

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James Poniewozik - 12:42 p.m.: About the theme of Responsibility: Back when we were liveblogging the debates, I remember that the CNN focus-group dials went off the charts whenever a candidate talked about "personal responsibility." Americans love being told that they need to start taking responsibility for themselves. Or at least that other Americans do.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:38 p.m.: Even Rev. Lowry is focusing more on the political than the racial.

Although the red man can get ahead man is a great, great line.

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Karen Tumulty - 12:37 p.m.: What a speech. The most somber inauguration address I can remember. And it reminded me a bit of what it felt like to be in Chicago on election night: Obama was once again the pull of gravity on the giddiness around him. That kind of focus explains what got him here, and I think it explains why polls suggest that, even as Americans stare into the most dire economic circumstances they have ever had to face, upwards of 70% of the public feels confident about him.

He's delivered on The Hope. Let's pray with him that he can also bring The Change.

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James Poniewozik - 12:36 p.m.: How badly does Chris Matthews want to start talking RIGHT NOW? The pressure of restrained verbiage in his throat could probably power a hydroelectric generator.

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James Poniewozik - 12:35 p.m.: Andre (a.k.a. Tuned In Jr. Jr.) has fallen asleep watching the ceremony. In fairness, though, he has a fever.

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James Poniewozik - 12:32 p.m.: @MG: Yeah, no offense to her, but why do you schedule anything after the main event? It's like running the trailers after the feature.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:30 p.m.: I feel bad for this poet. If I were her eighth-grade teacher, I'd give her a c-minus. But as my brother just said: it's not her fault she had to go after a real poet.

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James Poniewozik - 12:29 p.m.: Switching channels, I accidentally turned on Bravo, which is rerunning The West Wing. Matt Santos, who was inspired by Barack Obama, was just elected President. This time, life is outdramatizing art.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:27 p.m.: Valley forge is exactly right. I guess it even works with the cold day.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:24 p.m.: These things are old. These things are true.

Most of our revolutionaries have been traditionalists. And to return to the theme we started with, he's saying that bush was the radical

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Michael Grunwald - 12:21 p.m.: BECAUSE we have tasted the bitter swill of slavery and segregation...

That's brilliant. He's saying that the dark spots in our history are the source of our hope. I don't think I've ever heard it put exactly that way.

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James Poniewozik - 12:21 p.m.: @KT: "Brutal indictment." Which brings us back to the beginning of our liveblog. The coverage has been acting like this day is all about a nonpolitical racial moment, and not about a huge political change. The black man actually being sworn in to run the country, however, seems to be focusing on the latter.

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Karen Tumulty - 12:18 p.m.: “We are ready to lead once more.”

This speech is a brutal indictment of the last eight years.

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Karen Tumulty - 12:17 p.m.: “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”

Wonder what Cheney thought of that line.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:17 p.m.: Wow. Either Bush just swallowed a lemon or obama's talking about the rule of law.

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James Poniewozik - 12:17 p.m.: "The stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply"--rather than trying to triangulate against Washington, he's triangulating against shrill partisans. Likewise the bit about: it's not whether government is big or small but whether it works.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:15 p.m.: This is the weak part of the speech. It's a lovely laundry list - we will harness the wind and the sun - but still a laundry list. Save it for the state of the union.

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James Poniewozik - 12:15 p.m.: "We will restore science to its rightful place." Yes We Can teach evolution in the schools.

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James Poniewozik - 12:13 p.m.: @KT: I am registering www.obamaflubbedtheoathandthereforeisnotofficiallypresident.com

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Michael Grunwald - 12:13 p.m.: For us. That's a really smart refrain. Especially when it's: for us they suffered the lash and plowed the hard earth.

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Karen Tumulty - 12:12 p.m.: @Drudge: I'm pretty sure Roberts was the one who flubbed it.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:11 p.m.: To choose our better history.

That's good writing.

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Karen Tumulty - 12:11 p.m.: Drudge is leading with: OBAMA FLUBS THE OATH.

I am not making this up.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:11 p.m.: They are serious and they are many. It's just a great hemingwayesque way to put it.

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James Poniewozik - 12:10 p.m.: Wow. Let it not be said he went for a lot of feel-good easy-applause lines right up front.

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James Poniewozik - 12:08 p.m.: Astonishing crowd shots. Random question: what is the largest single assembly of people in one place, ever?

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James Poniewozik - 12:05 p.m.: Keith Olbermann just announced (mistakenly) that Obama is not President yet. Who would have thought CNN would call Obama Prez before MSNBC?

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James Poniewozik - 12:04 p.m.: Andre will be glad to know that, while he is not getting to watch Clone Wars right now, this version of Simple Gifts was arranged by Star Wars' composer. He was already excited to see Mace Windu at the HBO inaugural concert.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:03 p.m.: it's past noon! For god's sake, get to work! Yitzhak perlman is fiddling while the country burns!

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Karen Tumulty - 12:02 p.m.: @JP: You thought that about Sarah Palin, too.

By the way, Wolf Blitzer just pointed out that it is noon, and Obama is now the President of the United States.

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Michael Grunwald - 12:02 p.m.: Those shots of obama are pretty striking. Stuart scott would say he's as cool as the other side of the pillow.

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James Poniewozik - 12:01 p.m.: Obama just winked! I think it was at me! ***SWOOOOOON***

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Karen Tumulty - 11:59 a.m.: Backing up a minute, I can never see Senator Bennett of Utah without feeling compelled to mention he was a minor Watergate figure.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:59 a.m.: Biden apparently used the historic Yellow Pages bible.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:58 a.m.: Biden's middle name is Robinette. Who knew?

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James Poniewozik - 11:58 a.m.: "John Paul Stevens, who will administer the oath of office to Joseph Biden, then immediately announce his retirement..."

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James Poniewozik - 11:56 a.m.: OK, Aretha singing "Land where my fathers died" on this day: very moving. But ABC's montage of American monuments—Statue of Liberty, Jefferson Memorial, etc.—is gilding the lily. This day's about people, not statuary.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:56 a.m.: Why did rick warren say "malia and sasha" like he was introducing siegfried + roy?

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Karen Tumulty - 11:52 a.m.: @JP: There were some snags in the 16th as well.

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James Poniewozik - 11:52 a.m.: Am channel-flipping Warren invocation looking in vain for a same-sex couple crowd shot. Anyone see one?

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James Poniewozik - 11:51 a.m.: Correx to Rick Warren: "Peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time"? Obama will be the 44th Prez. I believe the transfer of power from the British to us was somewhat less peaceful. (OK, I suppose if you count the handoff from the Continental Congress, he's correct.)

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Karen Tumulty - 11:50 a.m.: Just called home and made sure my 16-year-old and 12-year-old are watching. They say they are, but I plan to quiz them on it when I get home.

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James Poniewozik - 11:48 a.m.: MG: My 4-year-old, Andre, is home sick from school today, BTW. And would frankly rather be watching Clone Wars.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:47 a.m.: Max just asked if diane feinstein would please put a lid on it already.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:44 a.m.: Max is mesmerized. Although he just asked: why only h? Is this guy like harry truman with the middle initial?

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James Poniewozik - 11:44 a.m.: Announcer just referenced Obama's middle initial! NOT COOL, dude, not cool. Oh, wait, we can do that now, never mind.

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James Poniewozik - 11:43 a.m.: @MG: I suspect the Baby Einstein people will be coming out with a Baby Obama DVD any day now.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:41 a.m.: We're letting my 10-month-old son watch tv for the first time, starting now. Max, it's not always this interesting.

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James Poniewozik - 11:40 a.m.: OK, I will break snark for a moment: Holy ____, that endless field of waving flags. Leaves the sight of Berlin in the dust.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:39 a.m.: Obama suddenly looks eight years older.

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James Poniewozik - 11:39 a.m.: Note to all Facebook/Twitter users: for the next couple of hours, we will all assume your current status is "excited," "hopeful," "amazed," etc. The Internet cannot take the strain.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:37 a.m.: Cheney can't go down non-handicap-accessible stairs, has to go separately. The unitary executive, circa 2009.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:35 a.m.: @JP: An Inauguration Day cage match among former Presidents actually sounds kind of cool...

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Michael Grunwald - 11:35 a.m.: A nice shot of boehner and mcconnell, grinning tightly as they try to decide whether they saw anything impeachable in the embargoed speech.

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James Poniewozik - 11:34 a.m.: @mg: In fairness, she has plans to deliver a song shorter and more efficient than My Country 'Tis of Thee, but it will take a few years to get through R&D, and she just needs a bridge loan in the meantime. Do you really want the new President serenaded in Japanese?

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James Poniewozik - 11:32 a.m.: Diane Sawyer remarks on the significance of watching former Presidents gather peacefully together, something "the world has not always known." I'm all for the "peaceful transition of power," but is it really such a singular accomplishment that incoming and outgoing Presidents don't try to vanquish each other in single combat on Inauguration Day? I mean, it's nice, but one or two other countries do manage to pull that off nowadays.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:30 a.m.: @jp: it will be more appropriate if she forgets the words and bush has to bail her out.

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James Poniewozik - 11:28 a.m.: Aretha Franklin approaches for her performance. As a Michigander, it seems appropriate right now to have a Detroiter (not born, but raised) have a role in the ceremony.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:27 a.m.: What kind of creature is that that landed on Aretha Franklin's head?

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Michael Grunwald - 11:26 a.m.: I see henry hager, and I'm reminded of another good thing bush did, aside from the speech to congress after 9/11 and the do not call list and his appropriately stingy army corps of engineers budgets and that marine reserve in hawaii: he didn't subject the nation to a white house wedding.

In general, I appreciated his refusal to over-emote every time something random happened - a nut shooting up a schoolyard, etc. I was less impressed by his catastrophic governance of the country.

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James Poniewozik - 11:23 a.m.: At what point did marches become the standard musical accompaniment to events like this? At one point in America's history, after all, they were current popular music, but I couldn't see the former Presidents today being ushered in to, say, Outkast. And yet now the old marches sound unavoidably like circus music.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:22 a.m.: It's weird: barbara bush has aged really well! I mean, she looked old in 1980. But she doesn't look a day older today.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:18 a.m.: @MG: It is called a military jet.

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Michael Grunwald - 11:15 a.m.: @jp: I'm still trying to figure out what air force one is called when it's not air force one.

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James Poniewozik - 11:14 a.m.: I have not received the embargoed text of the speech, but I'll say that it's "historic" anyway. Let it not be said I never learned anything from cable news!

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Karen Tumulty - 11:14 a.m.: Can't wait for the speech to start. It will shut up all those TV commenters reminding us about how significant this is.

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James Poniewozik - 11:13 a.m.: Dorky constitutional question: after Biden takes the oath of office, is he, for however many minutes, technically George W. Bush's vice president?

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Michael Grunwald - 11:13 a.m.: I just read it. I hate to make snap judgments but I guess that's why we're here: it's extraordinary. Even on the page the rhythm is palpable. And it's not a dark speech - it's a speech about the path out of darkness. And yes, hope and change, but without blathering about hope and change.

It ends not with lincoln but with washington at valley forge, which is exactly the iright image if you think things really suck right now.

Which they do.

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James Poniewozik - 11:11 a.m.: CNN about to show a picture of the Mall taken from space. It's Google Earth TV!

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James Poniewozik - 11:07 a.m.: Can I just say that I think it's tremendous hubris on Obama's part to hold this event amidst all these Greek columns. Also, the big phallic column placed in the background is clearly some kind of subliminal racist code.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:06 a.m.: Opening of the inaugural address looks pretty dark.

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Karen Tumulty - 11:04 a.m.: Obama transition has put out an embargoed copy of the inaugural address.

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James Poniewozik - 11:03 a.m.: Fox News filling time with the I-still-don't-quite-get-why-it's-a-controversy over Jill Biden's comment that Joe was offered a choice between VP and Sec State. (Yes, I get that anything Hillary-related = juicy controversy. But however you slice it, he got VP and she didn't... is that really still news?)

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Karen Tumulty - 11:03 a.m.: Michelle wearing Isabel Toledo.

Please, High Sheriffs. Please, please, pretty please let me liveblog the Oscars...

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James Poniewozik - 10:57 a.m.: Dig the sliding red light on the front of the motorcade limo, which makes it look like it's part Cylon Centurion. (Which would in fact make a great name for a car model.)

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Michael Grunwald - 10:57 a.m.: Amazing pepsi ad about the new generation. And then: a clean coal ad, quoting the president-elect-for-another-half-hour. Let me repeat: there is no such thing as clean coal! You're not the senator from illinois anymore...

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Karen Tumulty - 10:56 a.m.: @JP and his commenter contest: Over at Swampland, commenter sacredh says: Last day on the job. A back injury. Very suspicious. I think he's going to pull the workers compensation thing

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Michael Grunwald - 10:54 a.m.: @kt And Pauly Shore was just sighted about 3/10 of a mile east of the washington monument...

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Karen Tumulty - 10:53 a.m.: A commenter contest! I love commenter contests! (Although commenter Pourmecoffee seems to win all of them over on Swampland.)

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James Poniewozik - 10:51 a.m.: Commenters' contest: What was the REAL cause of Cheney's back injury? I'll start you off:

* Injured when master of Jedi Council turned his Sith lightning back on him while attempting to dislodge him from office.

* Already feeling effects of loss of government-procured spare body parts

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Karen Tumulty - 10:51 a.m.: From Jay Newton-Small on the mall:

P. Diddy just made an entrance flanked by bodyguards, as if security wasn't tight or anything.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:50 a.m.: If Obama were really serious about that whole green thing, he and Bush would have taken the subway.

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Michael Grunwald - 10:50 a.m.: Shredding is strenuous!

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Michael Grunwald - 10:49 a.m.: Wolf blitzer: let's listen and see what we hear when they get into the vehicle.

Silence. Sound of door slamming. All righty then!

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James Poniewozik - 10:48 a.m.: Dick Cheney being wheeled out in a wheelchair, apparently owing to a moving-related back injury. Would that be a "disclosed dislocation"? Ba-DUM-dum! Thank you! I'll be here all week!

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Karen Tumulty - 10:47 a.m.: Scherer emails a good description of what may be the new media pecking order in Washington. Pay special attention to “Tax Notes”:

In addition to the expected newspapers and magazines, Daily Beast, Talking Points Memo, US Weekly, OK, Washington Blade, Readers Digest, Tax Notes all have seats in first five rows. Paris Match is in front row.

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James Poniewozik - 10:45 a.m.: @KT: Awesome hat on Teddy, speaking of hats. Oddly, vaguely reminiscent of the black fedoras the Hasidim here in Brooklyn wear.

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James Poniewozik - 10:44 a.m.: @KT: Just one TV in the room I'm in. But I have a very short attention span.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:42 a.m.: Ted Kennedy looks GREAT!

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Karen Tumulty - 10:42 a.m.: @JP: How many TVs do you have, anyway?

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James Poniewozik - 10:40 a.m.: On ABC, Spike Lee is wearing a white Yankee cap, with furry ear flaps, that looks like it was made from the pelt of a Siberian husky.

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James Poniewozik - 10:37 a.m.: What would Nixon say about this day? What would Warren Harding?

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Karen Tumulty - 10:36 a.m.: @JP and MG: Props to the first pundit who makes reference to a dead President he or she DIDN'T write a book about.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:35 a.m.: @JP: Frame of reference: I think reports at the time said Bill Clinton drew 250,000 for his first inauguration; George W. Bush drew 100,000 for his second.

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Michael Grunwald - 10:34 a.m.: @jp: yeah, and what about john calhoun? I think he'd say: @*!/?(*#

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James Poniewozik - 10:33 a.m.: Large Numbers, Illustrated: CNN estimates 2 million on the National Mall. Look at that crowd. Barack Obama merely needs to get jobs for twice that many people.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:33 a.m.: Michael Scherer emails us this from the good seats:

At the base of the inagural podium, just behind the press section the gliterarti of motown's heyday have seats, resplendent in furs. Smokey Robinson's may be mink. But I have no idea how one could tell. It's black. He is sitting a few seats from a person I am assured is Berry Gordy, and a woman who is rumored to be Gladys Knight, which I can't confirm. Smokey is hugging Denzel Washington, who it must be said played Barack Obama in Hollywood before anyone knew who BHO was.

Smokey, whose eyes are a dazzling pale green, is talking now. "He's changed my life just like he has changed your life," he said to a reporter. "This is great for thee world, not just the united states."

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Michael Grunwald - 10:31 a.m.: CNN now discussing the court. They don't mention that now conservatives have to start freaking out about scalia's health the way liberals had to freak out about stevens the last 8 years.

Another fun 1828 fact: jackson, who absolutely despised chief justice john marshall, sent him a note reminding him to be punctual for the swearing-in. Marshall sent back an equally terse note saying he was always punctual.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:29 a.m.: Washington today is all about the logistics. The subways are pretty much of a disaster, but the freeways were nearly empty as I came in (Thank you, CNN, and your wonderful car service) at what would normally be rush hour.

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James Poniewozik - 10:28 a.m.: Coverage Cliche Watch: "What would [historical personage X] think if he were watching Obama's inauguration today?" Doris Kearns Goodwin currently seancing Lincoln's thoughts on MSNBC.

Here's my guess: if Lincoln were watching the Inauguration on MSNBC today, he'd be thinking, "What manner of box is this, that makes paintings to move and speak? And why am I not in the theater?"

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James Poniewozik - 10:24 a.m.: The difference between Fox News' coverage and the other news channels? Volume. CNN, and especially MSNBC, have an almost constant soundtrack of crowd noise. Fox's is quiet—plenty of crowd shots but less cheering. The cynical analysis is that Fox is in mourning, but I'm going to be charitable and call it reserved. I actually like it better. This is a huge day; you don't need to oversell it.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:23 a.m.: @JP and the point about the Pepsi campaign: Seeing everyone on the street wearing something that has Obama's name, face or logo on it, it struck me that this could be the salvation of Detroit: The new “special edition” Chevrolet Camarobama.

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Karen Tumulty - 10:21 a.m.: Hey, guys. I just got into the office, which is right alongside the security perimeter. The scene on the street is every bit as crazy and joyous as it looks on TV. I agree with much of what you guys said in your earlier posts. This is a pivot point for our country at so many levels. For all the talk yesterday of how this is the realization for MLK Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, I'm also struck by the fact that the man who will be inaugurated today was born the same year that John F. Kennedy was inaugurated. It does indeed feel that, once again, a torch is being passed.

Plus, Michelle's dress is awesome.

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Michael Grunwald - 10:19 a.m.: Well, there were lincoln logs...

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Michael Grunwald - 10:14 a.m.: By the way, speaking of history, I know the cool kids are supposed to make fun of Obama for trying to claim Lincoln's mantle-announcing in springfield, visiting the memorial, team of rivals, reading the new kaplan bio, using the lincoln bible today-but I think it's great. Why not aim high? Should he claim millard fillmore's mantle?

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James Poniewozik - 10:11 a.m.: How do you know when a politician is having a broad effect on American culture? When he becomes a soft drink. On the TV coverage this morning, I've been seeing Pepsi's newly unveiled ad campaign, which shamelessly borrows the language and graphics of Obama's campaign. "Yes, You Can." Get it? Pepsi. Can. And: "Every Generation Refreshes the World." We've had Presidents as celebrities before, but I think this is our first President-as-brand.

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Michael Grunwald - 10:06 a.m.: I'm already starting to feel bad for the pundits trying to out-superlative each other. Campbell Brown just said they're going to keep repeating this in "the coming minutes - frankly, in the coming hours." History is definitely today's drinking word.

And speaking of superlatives: Love michelle's outfit!

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James Poniewozik - 10:02 a.m.: Watching the cable news walkup this morning, I have been shocked by the lack of countdown clocks, which cable uses for everything else nowadays. MSNBC, for instance, could have had a little thermometer-graph clock running up a graphic of Chris Matthews' leg. When the tingle gets to his knee, Obama becomes President!

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Michael Grunwald - 10:02 a.m.: Exactly!

The bushes and obamas just met on the white house steps. For what it's worth, jq adams skedaddled before jackson got to town...

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James Poniewozik - 10:01 a.m.: @Michael: I have to agree on much of what you wrote. This inauguration is significant as a political change, yet the coverage has weirdly been trying to make something nonpolitical of it. The fact is, and Inauguration is the culmination of a political process, period. But once you start talking political specifics, people start disagreeing. So the media walk-up to the Inaug has largely focused on the racial significance: the thing that people can largely agree to feel good about. Of course, it's a big thing. But I suspect one or two people out there on the Mall are also happy that the new guy is going to be different from the old guy in terms other than melanin content as well.

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Michael Grunwald - 10:00 a.m.: Yes. He's black. It's cool.

I don't want to downplay the historic power of a black man in the White House. It's as amazing as everyone keeps saying. When Barack Obama was a kid, Jim Crow was still kicking. Michelle Obama's great-great grandfather was a slave in the land of the free. The Supreme Court didn't strike down laws banning miscegenation until 1967. And now...wow. You don't have to be black or biracial or even American to be blown away. You just have to be alive.

But let me interrupt all the race-soaked television commentary to suggest that race is not the big story of the election and the inauguration. Today is the end of the Bush era, an extremely lousy but undeniably important time in our history. I'd argue that the election of 1800 was the most momentous in American history, followed by 1860, then 1932. And I'd put 2008 right after that; I know some historians will squeal for 1828, but Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams agreed on a lot of pretty important stuff. We're in the middle of a really big crisis, and we're about to have a really big change. That's a really big deal.

Race was the most important political and cultural issue facing the United States for most of its first century, and one of the top few issues for most of its second century. But it's not anymore. That's something to celebrate; that's exactly what a lot of those folks out there in the cold are doing. But let's face it: culturally, Oprah already ruled our world. Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are already our national corporate spokesmen. And Colin Powell probably could have been elected in 1996. Nothing about Obama's rise to the presidency has surprised me, except that I didn't think he'd have so much trouble in the primary.

But this really is one of those historical pivot points. The fate of the American empire--the one that Jackson and Adams both believed was our destiny--really is at stake. Obama won't say it today, because even groundbreaking politicians aren't allowed to say this kind of thing, but we are currently a nation in decline--strategically, economically, environmentally, fiscally and influentially, although that's probably not the right word. The next president can turn that around. When they dig up the time capsule, the folks from the future are going to wonder why we kept talking about the color of his skin on his first day on the job.