Projo Politics Blog

By Lynn Arditi

January 18, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- If not for the machine-gun-toting FBI sharpshooters staked out around the base of the Washington Monument, you could almost forget that President-elect Barack Obama is not loved by all.

Everywhere you turned on the mall yesterday, Obama's image -- confident, proud and serene -- beamed from buttons, t-shirts, flags and even wristwatches. Prices, naturally, were inflated. (Obama buttons sold for $5 each.) But then again, the inauguration is probably the best economic stimulus this town has seen in years.

Photos by Timothy Barmann

Some of the more memorable Obama paraphernalia: An Obama tote bag emblazoned with a color picture of the president-elect and his family. (The carrier was a white guy in his 50s.) Obama man-style bracelets. And the "Obama Cube." The guy selling them looked at our two boys, 10 and 14, and offered: "It's educational!" (A Rubic's cube, perhaps? No telling for sure, since we didn't buy one.)

For those who wanted to know what they'd look like standing next to the man who is about to become America's next president, there was a life-sized cardboard cut-out of Obama, courtesy of MSNBC. You weren't supposed to take pictures with your own cameras, though some of us did it anyway. A group of MSNBC workers wearing computer screens around their necks were taking the pictures and then entering your contact information so they could e-mail you the picture. Hmmm...

We trekked across the mall to the Washington Monument and photographed the camouflaged FBI sharpshooters surveying the crowds with binoculars atop SUVs. We paused to listen to the strains of Bono and U2 and to gaze at the giant screens -- JumboTrons -- projecting live pictures from the concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

But of all the images from this day, less than 48 hours before Barack Obama becomes the next U.S. president, the ones that my husband and I will remember most were these: a group of young African American, 20-something men, arms around each other's shoulders jumping up and down shouting "Change! Change! Change!"

And the families -- so many families like ours, only darker-skinned -- smiling as they posed in front of the White House, their White House, for photographs.

It's about time.

Journal Staff Writer Lynn Arditi, and her husband, Projo.com Producer Timothy Barmann, are in Washington D.C. to attend Tuesday's inauguration with their two boys.

 

 Tags  Barack Obama D.C. inaguration Washington

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