I'm not sure why anyone on WoC would give a hoot, but just thought I'd mention that my high school equestrian unit will be marching in the inaugural parade. They have something of a long history in inaugurals, and I rode with the unit for LBJ's inaugural in 1965. I met and talked with the cadets and equestriennes who are in this parade Sunday night, and they're pretty excited. A college friend has a son in the unit who is a squad leader. They'll be toward the end of the parade (which is where they usually put the horses, for obvious reasons) in Group 6, just behind the Merchant Marine Marching Band.
Glad I'm not riding. Brrrr...
My take on the inaugural address is that Obama is on the verge of being seduced by the Great Republic. He made a number of obligatory references to left-oriented talking points, particularly regarding ecology and "global warming" (which I sure wish would hurry up, given how brutally cold it is at the moment in the northeast) but I think there's a chance that we'll pursue pretty much the same strategy, under a different label. A lot of Democrats are convinced that we're about to abandon Iraq, with very good reason, but essentially all they mean by that is that we'll leave the bulk of the fighting to Iraqis, and that's what one would expect. The notion that we'll abandon the "neocon strategy" of promoting liberal democracy behind the threat of a rather capable military seems something of a pipe dream. There really isn't any alternative to that strategy, so it'll just be re-labeled and re-marketed. That's basically what happened when Eisenhower took over the "containment strategy" established by Truman. There just aren't that many ways to skin the cat.