President Obama: You Had Me at 'Nonbelievers'

Washington, D.C.--What a great weekend it's been here: the city never looked so good, people from out of town and those from here all had big smiles on their faces. People were genuinely nice to each other and treated each other with respect--when was the last time you saw that in a major city?

My wife and I came for the Inauguration and Illinois State Ball. We ended up enjoying a concert and a parade as well. I don't have too many pictures because we were really far away from anything deserving of a picture and you've all by now seen the pictures from the National Mall and the Capitol Grounds.

As for the Inauguration ceremony, our tickets to the event said "Purple Standing". This now infamous section was one of the few which entrance was prohibited to us. Granted, we got there later than most people, but the line was long and we decided to watch the ceremony elsewhere. The one line that struck me the most was when my new President actually was talking directly to me: "For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers." That's me (the non-believer); no president had ever spoken directly to me and I appreciated that.

But what is truly the most important thing of all yesterday occurred in the cyberworld, not the real world: WhiteHouse.gov went live to Obama shortly after the oath of office was uttered by the new President. I look forward to the implementation of that agenda. The campaign was a tasty gumbo of great strategy, using technology to the fullest, and boots on the ground. It appears that government will now be the same.

My friend, Paul Anderson joined my wife and I. He's a reporter for the Daily Pilot (of LA Times regionals). He's posted some excellent dispatches from D.C., you'll enjoy them. I'm glad to be heading home now, but I will always carry with me the palpable sense of optimism, and, yes, hope, from Inaugural Weekend 2009.