Washington (CNSNews.com) – Just after 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, the motorcade for President-elect Barack Obama turned left at the corner of 16th and I Streets near the headquarters of the AFL-CIO, the labor union, which held a banner that read, “We’re turning America around.”
Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, were on their way to meet with outgoing President Bush and first lady Laura Bush for coffee at the White House, along with several inaugural event organizers.
After the parade of vehicles turned, several people in the crowded streets shouted, “It’s him,” then began their applause as police ordered them to “stay on the sidewalk.”
Those sidewalks were packed with dozens of vendors who were selling t-shirts, calendars, flags, and hats, all with Obama’s likeness. Also, fitting for the temperatures in the 20s, was coffee and hot chocolate, and hand-warmers were big sellers.
More than 1 million people from across the nation were packed into the nation’s capital to watch the inauguration. One visitor was Wynter Barton-Brown of Boston, Mass.
“He has changed the perception of America from can’t to can,” Barton-Brown said of the new president. “He knows what’ he’s talking about at the end of the day. That’s what got him elected.”
The slow shuffle on the crowded Washington sidewalks were rivaled by the stop and go metro trains, most of which had crowded people almost on top of one another.
Disc jockeys from 98.3 FM Univision radio in Miami carried a microphone on a train and began interviewing the packed assembly of people, who identified themselves as being from Virginia, Tennessee, Mississippi, Canada and Switzerland.
One of the DJs asked, “How many here love Obama?” He got a big roar. He followed up, “How many of you hope Obama legalizes marijuana?” Several on the train shouted as well.
On another Metro train a young man shouted out, “Free pins courtesy of the New York Times,” and passed handfuls of pins throughout the train. The pins featured Obama’s face with the date 1-20-09 over the name of the newspaper frequently criticized in the 2008 campaign for having overly favorable coverage of Obama.
But Obama supporters, for the most part, felt the new president received fair media coverage.
A bias was present in the Democratic primary between Obama and Hillary Clinton, said Liam Curran, who came from Boston to be part of the inauguration, but not in the general election against Republican John McCain.
“I did support Barack in the primary, but I think Hillary might not have gotten a fair shake,” Curran told CNSNews.com.
Lou Marini, who traveled to Washington, D.C., from Manhattan called Obama’s inauguration “a quantum leap forward” for the country and thinks the news media had little to do with his election.
“For the last eight years, the only news I’ve watched was ‘The Daily Show,’ because that was the only place I could get the truth,” Marini told CNSNews.com. “I was in college in the 60s, and I felt that journalists were champions of exposing bull. But for the last eight years, they have refused to ask any questions.”
Delia Brinton, of San Anselmo, Calif., who said Obama inspired America because of his “tremendous leadership and values and integrity,” believed media coverage was “pretty fair.”
“They asked lots of questions of him,” Brinton told CNSNews.com. “The situation with his pastor they covered pretty well.”
Many Obama fans feel he has already changed America, keeping with his campaign themes of change and hope.
“He has given us a reason to look at government as a way to get out of this mess. He has given us a reason to believe that government can help us,” Ann Marie Adams, a graduate student at Howard University, told CNSNews.com. “It’s not entirely tangible how he has changed America. It’s like when you go to church and you feel God speaking to you. It’s not tangible, but you just know.”
Some of those who did not get inauguration tickets, and many who had tickets but were turned away, viewed the inauguration on plasma TVs at a reception held by Massachusetts Sens. Ted Kennedy and John Kerry. The reception became so big it had two spillover rooms in the Dirkson Senate Office Building.
Being away from the live action did not keep the audience watching on TV from cheering and chanting. They stood up when Chief Justice John G. Roberts was introduced to administer the oath of office.
After the oath, those watching on TV broke out in loud applause. Some began the campaign chant of “Fired up. Ready to go.” One woman shouted to the theme of the song Bingo, “The U.S.A has a new president and Obama was his name-o, O-B-A-M-A, O-B-A-M-A, O-B-A-M-A and Obama was his name-o.”
Beverly Johnson came from Alameda, Calif., to attend the inauguration. She was initially a Hillary Clinton supporter but said Obama’s journey to the White House was inspiring.
“A lot of people never thought we would see an African-American elected president,” Johnson told CNSNews.com when visiting a reception by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.). “A lot of people thought it would never happen.”