To be honest, I had a hard time taking in the beginning of the speech because I was still recovering from the fumbled oath. Roberts fumbled the frigging oath! WAY. TO. GO. You know who appointed Roberts? BUSH. Perfectly symbolic. A 35-word oath, on the most important day in our country maybe ever, and he couldn’t pull it off. Ugh. I’m pretty furious about that.
Anyway. That said, the speech got off to a slow start (although I really can’t get past the Roberts screwup) but amped up in the second half, and in the last eight minutes, it soared. His calls to responsibility, to pull together, to reach out to others, were the right notes for the day and hopefully in all our days to come. I cared less about the words, to be honest, than I did about just seeing Obama speak at that podium. I cared less about the words than about seeing Michelle in her awesome lemony dress, looking like sunshine. I cared less about the words than I did about watching Bush wave goodbye when he got on that helicopter. I cared less about the words than the faces of everyone in the crowd, beaming.
A 35-word oath, on the most important day in our country maybe ever, and Roberts couldn’t pull it off.
Watching all the Obama-mania of the last few days has given me a feeling that I suppose could be described as the opposite of schadenfreude. Pure joy in other people’s pure joy. I want a channel that just shows black people crying tears of happiness. And white people crying tears of happiness, too. And Asian people. And all the other people. A 24-hour-a-day Tears of Happiness Channel, anyone?
Jessi Klein is a writer and comedian who has frequently appeared on Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, and the Today show. She is writing a screenplay for Universal Studios, as well as occasionally drawing animals for her best friend’s letterpress card company. She also likes to think she has value as a human being aside from her numerous credits in the entertainment industry.
