Inauguration seizes the day

Like an episode of “The Outer Limits,” the 55th presidential inauguration took control of a large swath of television Thursday morning. It trickled to life before the West Coast dawn, with reports from outside President Bush’s church and a preview of the day to come -- phrases like “glittering fanfare,” “hot ticket,” “virtual fortress” painted the picture of our gaily transformed capital. Snow dusted the ground, very prettily.

All the major networks and the minor major networks and the cable news networks were signed on, though CNBC ran a stock ticker throughout the ceremony. (CSPAN2 stuck with nearby antiwar/anti-Bush demonstrations -- it was a swearing-in day for some, and a day for swearing for others.) The CNN headline crawl provided an interesting counterpoint: “Ben Kingsley and his wife Alexandra have separated after 15 months of marriage, publicist says.... “Everybody Loves Raymond” cast calling it quits.... Driver for the Dave Matthews Band charged Wednesday with reckless conduct for dumping human waste from tour bus over the side of bridge onto passengers aboard boat on the Chicago River.”

Anchors and pundits swapped trivia and anecdotes as cameras trailed dark SUVs to the Capitol, and the official crowd gathered upon its steps with handshakes and cheek-kisses: George Washington’s was the shortest inaugural address, I learned. John Adams refused to attend Jefferson’s inauguration, John Quincy Adams refused to attend Andrew Jackson’s. On two networks I heard a story about Bill Clinton shouting to Hillary Rodham Clinton on his inauguration day, “Come on, we’re late.” (The Clintons seemed to be having as much fun as anyone.) Jimmy Carter asked, after an inauguration day ride with Ronald Reagan, “Who’s this guy Jack Warner he keeps talking about?” The new presidential limo is a Cadillac.

The sheer number of cameras pointed at this event would seem to indicate that something deeply real was happening, but in most ways the day was a break from reality, disconnected from the days that preceded and will follow it. It’s a party, for one thing, and even the newsmen are flush with adrenaline and feeling. (NBC’s Brian Williams seemed especially moved.) But the American purchase on reality is ordinarily weak: We are a nation of dreamers, influential, insular and insulated, and never so much as when we are wrapped in symbols of our own goodness.

Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi emceed with cool aplomb. There’s a job for him in the game-show industry when Washington no longer wants him. Preachers preached; God was everywhere. A terrible song written by Utah’s Republican Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (“Heal our land, heal our land / And help us understand / That we must put our trust in Thee / If we would be free”) was followed by one written by departing Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft (“Let the eagle soar / Like she’s never soared before”). “There must be a story somewhere about why this particular song was chosen to be sung from the Capitol at this particular time,” Dan Rather said, “but we don’t know that story.”

Bush does not always do well on television: It adds 10 pounds to his smirks and malaprops; his folksiness reads as phoniness. Possibly with that in mind, he left his cowboy hat at home, did not drop his g’s, used his very best diction. “America’s influence is not unlimited,” he said, “but fortunately for the oppressed, America’s influence is considerable, and we will use it confidently in freedom’s cause.” Bush used the word “freedom” a lot, as if it were somehow a patented American invention. He has learned how to give a speech, though.

Lunch followed, and a motorcade, and a parade. On the Golf Channel, all was as usual.