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Feeling nostalgic? Follow this link to some of our favorite posts throughout the campaign. And here's a list of some of the press attention we received.

For a continued daily fix of global perspectives, please turn your attention to Global Voices Online.

We start with a speech by Trevor Phillips, who is paying homage to Obama only weeks after he slammed Obama in Prospect magazine! Anyway, it’s a day of celebration so I won’t get too bitchy. Harriet Harman was on a bit earlier and was short and sweet.
I have my Obama t-shirt on, woohoo!

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Its all just about to kick off, the old presidents, Clinton, Bush, Carter have all arrived.

Did you see how red Joe Biden got? Talk about loose lips sink ships.

Jill Biden said on the Oprah show that she wanted her husband to be vice president instead of secretary of state, chiefly because it would involve less travel.

"If you're secretary of state, you'll be away, we'll never see you, you know," she said, describing how she and her husband had talked about it.

"I'll see you at a state dinner once and awhile. But I said, if you are vice president, the entire family, because they worked so hard for the election, they can be involved. They can come to our home. They can go to events, they can be with us all the time. And that's what's important to us," she said.

Biden, seated at his wife's side, looked sheepish and tried to shush his wife after she made the remark.

Via / ABC News and Reuters

Articles are invited about what you expect (or don't) from the new American President.

February 24: VwV was launched in February of 2008 and one of our first posts was titled, “After Fidel, Cuban bloggers discuss US candidates.” The post compiled Cuban bloggers thoughts on what the new U.S. president would do with the new leader of Cuba and so Obama’s infamous “without pre-conditions” line began, which haunted him throughout the campaign.

March 21: After videos of Obama’s reverend were brought to the public, the now President-elect delivered, arguably, one of the most memorable speeches in history on racism. VwV’s post, “World moved by Obama’s speech on race,” highlights what bloggers throughout the world had to say after hearing Obama’s thoughts on race.

April 17: As the first African-American president of the U.S., it was crucial for VwV to get the thoughts of African bloggers on Obama. In the post titled, “A letter from Africa,” bloggers throughout the large continent shared their opinions on the then, Democratic contender for nomination.

June 9: As America’s summer heated up, so did the presidential campaign but throughout the world. In the post, “Global: The world has a say!” VwV’s editor compiled a list of Web sites that allowed non-Americans to vote who they think is best for the states.

June 19: The rapid growth of technology played a major role in the 21st century presidential campaign. In the post, “Global: I’m voting Republican” covers what world bloggers thought about a controversial film by Charlie Steak.

August 29: This was the day the world was introduced to Sarah Palin – the governor of the U.S. state closest to Russia and John McCain’s Republican running mate. Without much information about the Republican VP pick, bloggers simply commented about McCain’s pick being a woman as compiled in the post, “The world reacts to Sarah Palin’s VP nomination.”

October 10: Race was not only prevalent on the Democratic campaign trail but also on the Republican, as rallies became heated. The post, “Racism on the Republican Trail?” includes just a few of the comments that were fluttering through the blogosphere about remarks made during Republican rallies.

October 24: The rise of technology returns with the post, “Dear American Voter: an international persepective.” The post covers Link TV’s project that allowed non-Americans to send letters to American voters via videos. The post includes just some of the prevalent thoughts of the voices without votes.

November 4: Mainstream media outlets weren't the only ones covering “breaking news.” As soon as word got out that Dixville, New Hampshire, was the first county to close their polls and count their votes, the blogosphere was on it. This post, “Dixville notch makes global blogosphere history” quotes the excitement of some bloggers and skepticism of others.

November 9: And, after it was all said and done…bloggers began to look back and analyze how Obama ran a successful campaign. In the post, “Social media and the making of the president,” analyses were offered by bloggers in three different countries of how social media played such a major factor in the campaign.

On the lighter side of the campaign, our silliest moments include: Tina Fey as Sarah Palin; Sarah Palin’s conversation with “Sarkozy;” And, Joe the unlicensed plumber.

A friend had emailed me overnight to ask “So, what’s the atmosphere like over there?”

My immediate reaction was: “Erm, well, I don’t really know. Because I haven’t been out in the thick of things yet”.

I arrived at K’s house yesterday and we spent the afternoon/evening chatting, sleeping, eating and watching live footage of Obama and Biden’s journey from Philadelphia to DC. See, sometimes it’s just enough to be in the right country because you actually get to see things like that as they happen .

But actually, I realise that it’s not just that my yesterday was low-key. Based on my journey through the city at lunchtime (from Dulles Airport to the NE area, zip code 20002 if you want to look it up) and also on the news reports I’m seeing - where poor freezing newsreaders are standing on the Mall, with the Capitol building behind them - I can say that the atmosphere in DC yesterday was, surprisingly, also very muted.

Said newsreaders are standing on a fairly empty Mall; and as our airport shuttle bus made its way through the city yesterday, the streets were really very quiet. Mind you, that always freaks me out about American cities (bar New York): where are all the pedestrians? (In this case: inside, probably, as it’s sub-zero temperatures.)

All this will undoubtedly change today, however - as a) I will be entering the thick of it, to b) go to the massive concert being held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It kicks off at 1.30pm our time (for the duration of my stay over here, “our time” will be Washington time ) and they’re expecting a crowd of 500,000.

You can watch the concert live on www.hbo.com. I’m presuming that means you can watch it live on the site internationally, also. If so, it kicks off at 6.30pm UK time.

Watch out for me. I’ll be the one in a coat, hat and scarf.

And here was Barack’s full speech in Baltimore:

As the reporter and my friend K both noted, it’s almost as if Obama is still campaigning. And as I replied, it strikes me that this because he truly wants a sea-change in the country. He genuinely wants Americans to reach out and help each other more, to look after each other and work together; to change the mood of a nation beyond doing so with intangible feelings like hope and optimism. As Obama said on the night of November 4th, his election is just the beginning. And as a result he will, perhaps, have to keep drilling his vision - or rather: the practical application of his vision - into the American people. I doubt he will ever let up. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

*Update* Just found footage from Delaware, including Joe’s full introductory speech. Gotta love around 5 minutes, where all the white secret service agents appear, followed by their black President. Magical :

slideshowHey, America, I’m back! And I’m pleased to be here.” That’s what I wanted to shout when I arrived at Cincinnati airport on Thursday afternoon. Even the blast of icy air that hit me on disembarking the plane wasn’t going to dim my spirits and stop this next chapter in my Obama journey.

The officials at the airport had other ideas though. First was the frustration of having to fill out a paper immigration form, despite having filled out the exact same thing online before I left London. The new system just introduced is not yet fully in operation, at least not in Cincinnati. But that was minor compared to the succession of checks, questions, x-rays, searches and queues that I and my bags were then subjected to. And not all of them were conducted in an entirely friendly manner. I picked my suitcase up from the carousel only for it to be x-rayed, searched and then deposited on a conveyer belt to be transported to a different part of the airport for me to pick up all over again. The lack of signage only added to my confusion.

So it was with great relief that I saw the friendly faces of Randy and Jodi waiting for me. Last time I had seen them was on the evening before election day, hope mixed with nervous tension and the adrenaline of gearing up for one final big get-out-the-vote push.

Then the weather had been unseasonably warm. Now it was unusually cold. -12C when I landed and quickly plunging to -19C as night fell. I’ve never experienced a cold like that; which penetrates clothing within seconds. It was so cold that schools across the area were closed on Friday. On the flip side I was introduced to the great American tradition of making ’snow angels’ in the yard.

I was interviewed by CBS’s London bureau (ooh, don’t you just love that? “London bureau”) last week, over a coffee in Soho. It was apparently for their Sunday morning show called, erm, Sunday Morning - and, well, I guess it just never really hit me that that’s a Proper Television Show. You know, like, beamed into people’s homes across America, and everything.

Anyway, turns out that it is - and I was just on it, part of a segment on how people around the world are feeling about Barack Obama’s inauguration.

Apparently.

Because I didn’t see it.

Partly because, as I say, it hadn’t really occurred to me that it would actually be on TV; and partly because I was too excited about the possibility of seeing both Chris Matthews and Meet The Press on a Real Actual Television that K and I have been sitting here watching MSNBC, not CBS, this morning.

Here’s the show’s main page on the CBS website; and here’s a link to this Sunday’s show, where presumably there will be a video of it posted at some point. I and my wonky British teeth will be in the ‘World Is Watching’ segment. *Gulp*.

*Update* Here’s a link to a piece about that segment. I am “Briton Andrea Mann”!

If I hadn’t been delayed by those 10 minutes, I wouldn’t have happened to be walking down the street towards the Lincoln Memorial concert just as the Obama motorcade went past.

And if I hadn’t decided to walk down to the Washington Monument after learning that there was no chance of getting into the concert ground itself, I would never have passed this man as he happened to be walking the other way:

This man, for the uninitiated - ie British people - is Chris Matthews. He’s one of America’s best-known TV pundits - and one of my favourites - and bumping into him is akin to following a British general election like a total geek, then flying to London only to bump into Jeremy Paxman or David Dimbleby.

It’s true. In America, anything *is* possible.

Yet, it’s important that things be kept in perspective.  There is a lot more important things going on out there than the inaguration of a new president.  There are still two wars going on and a global recession affecting the daily lives of millions, if not billions.  While this inaguration will indicate a change (or no change) in how these things are handled, it’s only an inaguration.  In about 37 hours, the new president will have a job to do, and will have to focus on it.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand the historical nature of this inaguration.  The fact that it lies near the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and a day after the celebration of the 80th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s birth is not lost of me.  Both men were instrumental in bringing about the changes in society that have allowed Obama to be sworn in as the 44th President on Tueday.  I just want people to remember that even on Tuesday there will still be bigger, more immediate fish to fry.  Celebrate the achievement but keep the bigger picture in focus.  That sounds like a good philosophy to me.

©2009 PoliGazette. All Rights Reserved.

This man really hates being president. He really fucking hates it. All those people who said that Bush was a front for Cheney? Never believed it until this conference.

I tried to find a transcript of the conference online--but so far, this video clip of "Bushisms" is the only thing I can find.

It's sort startling to me--the reporter seems think these -isms are so cute and funny--I find them more than a bit horrifying.

Maybe someday, the press will catch up with the rest of humanity and realize it's not funny when a president talks about great job done as people drown.

Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.

<gulp>

*yes, there will be more

Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez are scheduled to appear at the Latino Inaugural Ball (Obama's supposed to attend as well) on Sunday, January 18th, two days before the official Inauguration, and some high-profile Latino Dems are NOT pleased.

They're apparently furious because the high-profile couple didn't support Obama until after he'd won.

One major player called them "vile opportunists for worming themselves into anything Obama related even though they had nothing to do with his win."

Via / Perez Hilton

Image: AP/The Star.com