Good riddance

Had a great evening/night watching coverage of the US presidential inauguration, sharing it all with a good friend who'd suggested on Saturday that we watch together.

I must admit to some disappointment when it comes to the speech I'd been looking forward to so much. There really wasn't any phrase which will resonate down the ages like 'Ask not what your country can do for you ...' or 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself'. It was really all a bit too all-inclusive, too somewhat wishy-washy for my liking. Also, the whole organisation was a bit slip-shod, falling behind schedule and failing to convey the all-together precision which I would have expected from an occasion such as this. Stepping out of the limos on Pennsylvania Avenue was the best part of the whole thing as far as I was concerned, and I certainly didn't like the holy-holy clappy-clappy ethos of the religious overtones during the ceremony itself.

Also, the BBC and Sky coverage were both pretty terrible (especially Jon Sople on BBC, who was excruciatingly awful). CNN was good, but the best of the lot was our own RTÉ, I'd have to say. Well done Mark Little and Charlie Bird (but why did you have to talk through most of the musical contribution by Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman?).

Still, GWB is gone, and that has to be a good thing.