Home

It wasn’t a typical morning for me today. Usually I crawl out of bed, yawn and scratch my unmentionables before blindly picking out my wardrobe and jumping in the shower. This morning was unique in the way that I didn’t yawn. In fact, I immediately tuned into the events of the day as we were going to be inaugurating the 44th President of the United States. The anticipation was like going to your first middle school dance where the boys stand on one side, the girls the other and the cool kids were in the parking lot with a bottle of mom’s 10 year old brandy. It wasn’t just the fact that I voted for Obama that made the anticipation so exciting. It’s because we all get to wave goodbye to Bush. Forget the low approval rating and the indiscretions. The only real impressive thing he did in office was nimbly avoiding a thrown pair of shoes at a press conference (George, if you read this, I have an opening on my corporate dodge ball team so feel free to ping me). I actually don’t dislike Bush, I don’t really know him, but he was a below average president at best and we’ll leave it at that. Regardless, I had to watch this historical event.

My company decided to go to a local bar, JJ Foleys, in the South End to watch the inauguration. Ben, my business partner, thought it would be a good idea to watch it on a big screen so at 11am we bundled up and took the journey to Foleys. The “It’s 5 o’clock somewhere” mentality immediately kicked in while I ordered a Guinness at 11:30am and plunked myself down in front of the TV. I looked around as the bar quickly filled up. I mean the place was packed. People were walking in as if they were zombies gravitating towards brain. It was a borderline spectacle. Everyone was in awe, chatting, smiling, cheering. I felt like I was in Sheffield, England watching a Premier League match. That’s when it dawned on me. This whole ‘Change’ thing isn’t just marketing, it’s for real. I don’t remember anything like this for Bush or Clinton. People are truly expecting him to wiggle his nose like Samantha from Bewitched and have all their pains go away. I am excited but also realistic about what its going to take to actually get things back to normal in our country. Obama sent that message along with dozens of other poignant thoughts. His speech was impressive. His pause and forgetting a line during taking his oath was funny. People actually thought it was cute. Cute? Imagine if McCain was elected and that happened? He would have been sniped by one of the soldiers protecting him.

During the entire ceremony there were cheers, applause and optimism from the bar goers as Obama took his duties as the 44th President of the United States. The only time there wasn’t was when Bush’s mug flashed on the screen. Every time he was on TV the entire bar booed or made jokes. I mean, it was really sad (I made jokes). The only time Bush got applause? When he made his way to the Air Force helicopter that took him home to Texas.

So we all waved goodbye to Dubya. Rumor has it he just bought a beautiful home in Texas. Maybe he will become President of the local PTA and have Sarah Palin as his VP. Then they can go to war with New Mexico because according to her that’s a country.

PM to GWB: George, I’m serious. I have never seen anyone dodge a shoe like that, let alone two. Email me. I need a wingman stat.