Obamuration: Bush as side note

A lot's being said about Obama's inauguration. For the moment, I just want to add this: I was surprised, taking stock of my reaction, to be so much more excited about the new president than relieved that the old one was leaving. This is not what I would have expected just a year ago. My attitude would have been, "Just get rid of this guy, however you do it." I would have felt vengeful towards Bush, and the inauguration would fundamentally, for me, be about repudiating him. But, that's not at all what I felt today. What I felt was pride and excitement about what this new guy represents and what he might be able to do.

This tells me that Obama's campaign themes of hope and change were far more than simple voting slogans. They changed people's focus--away from a president who most historians view as one of the worst in our history, whose approval rating is somewhere in the 20s, who has committed outrage after outrage and blunder after blunder--to something more fascinating: the beauty of America and the opportunity for renewal. In other words, Obama was able to make the repudiation of Bush irrelevant, even for a lifelong Democrat, liberal like myself. I just didn't care about Bush anymore. When he flew off in that helicopter, I was like, "Oh, yeah. Wow. There's the added benefit that we get rid of that guy, too."

Maybe it's because Bush's been so unpopular, and thus irrelevant, for so long. But, still...it's a testament to the real power of what Obama has harnessed that he's made Bush's departure a side note.