Dispatch from D.C.: Another One On the Ground

By Karl Klockars in Miscellaneous on Jan 20, 2009 11:15PM

Now that we've gotten back home from the festivities and gotten a shower under our belts to wring the last of the January cold out of our fingers, we've got a few seconds to formalize some thoughts before it's back out into the madness that is DC. For a few more hours, the world's eyes will be on all of us as we collectively celebrate (most of us, that is) the changing of the guard.

We were in front of the Capitol this morning, watching random celebrities wander by and get shouted at, watching national press run around looking for their next sound bite and pull quote, and watching the Who's Who of political junkies parade out in front of us. For people that know the cabinet and leading senators and governors like some people follow the bullpen of (insert preferred Chicago sports team here), it was phenomenal to allow one's self to think, "This is where it's happening. This, right here, right now, is where the World is."

It was hard to pull the eyes off of the huge television screens, off of the people in the better seats than us, off the speeches and the singing and the invoking and the swearing. But when I could shake off a few of the stars in those eyes, I forced myself to look up at the dome of the Capitol building, the flying flag, the Statue of Freedom, and let the gravity of the whole situation sink in a little deeper. All of us are here, the millions on the Mall and the millions more at home or at work, watching a chapter close and another one open up.

As a Chicagoan, it's been nothing short of magical to watch a young, charismatic State Senator catapault himself to national prominence with one time-stopping speech, and from there traveling along with him as he took all of us along with him as he hauled himself up to take the most important position in the world.

It's been a fun ride, a long strange trip (he says, as he prepares to see the reconstituted Grateful Dead at the Mid-Atlantic Ball tonight, which is a truly strange thought) and now it's over. But another one has just begun, and it was a privilege to be there when it started. The details aren't really that important - what color dress, what goofy hat, what stumbled-over lines - but that it happened, is. When that helicopter lifted off from the White House lawn this afternoon, I think a lot of people breathed a collective sigh of relief.

And as a Chicagoan, I think it's time to let our President go. He's no longer just a guy from the South Side who has a house in Hyde Park and wears a Sox hat - who happened to also be elected President of the United States. Barack Obama is no longer just a Chicagoan. He now truly belongs to the rest of the world, and as Chicagoans we should allow ourselves to let go a little bit, to let everyone else take a little of what we have had.

President Obama's honeymoon period as the Leader of the Free World has just begun, but for Chicago, it ended about 5 hours ago. We had our transition period, our months of motorcades and press conferences in the Loop, our all-eyes-on-us window of time, but now that part is over. It's been fun playing "who's he going to pick next" and "what restaurant will he be at tonight" all in our collective front yard, but no more. As much as he was ever ours, he no longer is.

I may be getting ahead of myself here, but even though we're here celebrating what we hope will come in the next 4 years and what we've left behind in the last 8, I can't help myself but to look ahead to ten years from now. After our President leaves office (whenever that may be), may I be the first to ask that maybe he come back home and be our Governor? Feel free to take care of all that pending Presidency stuff, but you know we could use the help.

Time to go back and glue ourselves to MSNBC and watch the talking heads talk, time to figure out just how the hell we're going to get back downtown all dressed up, time to drink beer and eat take out in advance of the sustenance desert that is the Inaugural Ball series. Cameras have been charged and cleared, comemorative newspapers have been bought and swag picked up off of street vendors (Chicago kicks DC's ass on that front), socks have been changed and there's someone laughing at Pat Buchanan downstairs, so you'll allow me to take my leave for a bit. We'll be back to fill in the rest of the gaps in terms of tonight when we sober up and get the hell out of Dodge.

end dispatch - pictures to follow - forgot the goddamn cord at home - full report on inaugural ball debauchery in progress - cash bar and bad appetizers expected - hoping for free and copious bourbon at southern ball - will compile complete list of names to drop at later date - end dispatch