My, how things have changed.

I first saw Barack Obama in person on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007. As I wrote at the time, he'd "closed off Washington Square Park, 9.75 greenish acres at the heart of Greenwich Village and New York University, and welcomed dozens of Secret Service agents, scores of cops, four giant metal detectors, a herd of police dogs and, ultimately, 24,000 supporters, curious locals, ’60s holdovers, dog walkers, yoga devotees and punk rockers... to his first Big Apple rally (and largest event to date)." I didn't know what to expect. Not so much from the senator himself; I'd been following his career, like most other political junkies, for years. But the whole Obamastock experience was new to me. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised to discover that, despite all the security, I was able to wander wherever I wanted and interview whomever I wanted. I was even able to get one of Obama's top press people on the phone. No hassle.

I mention the Washington Square Park rally because it's superficially similar to tonight's Youth Ball, which I just finished "covering" here at the Washington Hilton. Both events boasted rosters of "young" and/or "hip" recording artists (rapper Jin and indie-rock group The Northern at Washington Square Park; Kid Rock, Kanye West and Fall Out Boy at the Youth Ball). Both attracted a few celebs (Geoffrey Wright then, Rosario Dawson now). And both crowds were heavy on the 18-35 demographic. But as I said, things have changed. To get into tonight's gala--one of the hottest of the 10 official Inaugural Balls--we media types not only had to pass through the usual metal detector; we had to wait until the Secret Service dogs had approved our bags--an olfactory ordeal that took, oh, 30 minutes--then follow a vigilant volunteer past the souvenir stands (panoramic, prom-style portraits: only $423!), the partygoers and, most depressingly, the bar, only to arrive at a heavily guarded holding pen in the far corner of the ballroom. Want water? A volunteer must escort you. Need to pee? Same deal. Ask nicely, and they'll even fetch you a real, live youth to interview. Needless to say, actual "reporting" doesn't really thrive in such barren soil.

Now, it's not like I'm complaining. I totally understand why tonight's measures were, if not necessary, then at least reasonable. But it's still worth noting how much of a difference a year and a half makes--not to mention a favorable outcome on Election Day. In most of the important ways, tonight's Youth Ball was far superior to the Washington Square Park event. Kanye West is, like, a million times awesomer than The Northern (he even wrote a special "Heartless" coda--"anything you dream can come true tonight"--for the occasion). It was pretty inspiring to watch my fellow millennials--who, believe it or not, were split between Hillary Clinton and Obama in September 2007--celebrating the candidate they wound up propelling to the presidency. And nothing I've seen since arriving in D.C. on Sunday has been as moving as the Michelle-Barack slow dance--or as funny as Obama's post-dance punchline. "That's what's called 'old school,'" he informed us.

So yeah. Presidents can definitely throw better parties than struggling, second-place presidential candidates. Still, I couldn't help thinking back fondly on Washington Square Park--from my current seat in the press corral.

Oh well. Four more years.

P.S. Yes, I had to (briefly) give my minders the slip to capture the video above. The things I do for Newsweek.

In the hallway to get back into the capitol after President Obama was sworn in, Robert Gibbs ran into a wall of security. The newly-minted White House press secretary was not allowed to pass, as agents prepared for Obama and President Bush to pass through the same hallway moments later. Stuck in the same holding pattern, I dutifully identified myself and we started to talk—a talk that was Gibb's first interview in his new official government role.

When asked how quickly Obama will get to work, signing executive orders and new legislation, Obama won't make any major presidential moves until tomorrow. His first actions, according to Gibbs, will be assembling his economic and foreign policy teams to discuss quick action on both fronts. And when Obama does sign his first executive order "its going to focus on transparency in government," says Gibbs. "That's something he wants to start on first." He confirmed that anything the president signs will be available first on whitehouse.gov.

When asked about Obamas mood this morning and over the past few days, Gibbs says that the new president is mindful of the significance. "This day has finally arrived and he understands how big it really is. Yesterday and today, I've seen him more calm and confident than I think I ever have."

For now, Gibbs said that the new executive party will be enjoying the day, and the evenings galas, with no plans to get immediately to work. But, addressing earlier news reports, he confirmed that van loads of executive staff left the capitol after the ceremony to get immediately to work. "I just hope there is furniture in there for us" he said.

Nearing the end of our short chat, Gibbs glanced down to look at his BlackBerry. "Oh look at that, they just turned my email on, and people are already writing" he laughed, referencing his new whitehouse.gov email address.

Then, a friend of Gibbs standing with us, knocked on the door. "Excuse us" he pleaded with the police officer playing door keeper, "he needs to get through. He's the press secretary to the president."

Clearly surprised, Gibbs looked around. "That sounds pretty good, doesn't it?" he said to me. "I've never heard my name like that before."

Yeah, we know. You millions of Obama acolytes freezing your tuchises off today liked the Inaugural Address. We heard your approval, loud and clear. But enough with the cheering already, D.C. It's been hours. Time for a new take. We want to know what conservatives think of the speech. Out, damn hope! Bring on the haters!

In that spirit, here's a roundup of conservative bloggers' reactions to the speech. Brace yourself: even some of them are (gasp!) cheering, too.

“A very good speech,” proclaimed Michael Goldfarb at The Weekly Standard. Obama didn't revise American history to suit present celebrations, he said, as did others on the stage with him. "I think there was a lot to like there for those whose greatest concern is that Obama is soft--that he doesn't appreciate the role violence has played in forging our democracy." He quibbled that Obama refused to use the word "victory" in his discussion of Iraq and Afghanistan, but acknowledged it was a minor point.

The team at National Review's The Corner had mixed opinions, but they skewed positive. Charles Kesler said ho-hum to the responsibility theme Obama chose, but gave props to his effort to take back patriotism and religion from their seemingly exclusively conservative domain. “President Obama’s speech was interesting, dignified, and unmemorable, like so many inaugural addresses,” he wrote, but gave Obama credit for handling "with grace" his unique place in history. Ramesh Ponnuru thought Obama a very compelling performer, but found the speech itself pedestrian. Jay Nordlinger admired its brevity, but ranted about its indirect slights to Bush, which he found quite rude. In the most ringing endorsement of all, Michael Knox Beran called the speech a home run. "On the whole I was impressed by the new President’s tone, by his précis of the American tradition, by the tribute he paid to our forebears and to those 'guardians of our liberty' who are making sacrifices today, and by my sense that he himself is acutely conscious of the preciousness of the legacy with which he has been entrusted."

Michelle Malkin had few kind words for Obama and his supporters, but cooed over the musical acts by Aretha Franklin, Itzhak Perlman, and Yo-Yo Ma. Her whole take on the speech: “’Transform’ this and that. Wallet feeling emptier by the second.”

Mitt Romney chimed in with some generally positive feedback at the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire. “Barack Obama gave a speech from the middle. He once again is communicating that he intends to govern from the middle and not from the wing,” he wrote. “It was a speech that could be offered by a leader from either party and that’s good.”

At Redstate, Leon H. Wolf expressed his hope that Barack Obama will be a failure as president, despite many of his fellow conservatives’ inclinations to give the new guy the benefit of the doubt. When the trains run on time, he reasons, people are less likely to give their presidents a tough time about their moral failings, which he says Barack Obama has in abundance.

“Quite good for what it was,” Paul Mirengoff at Powerline wrote, citing decent text and a strong oratory. The vision of postpartisan harmony is bunk, he maintains, but he’s confident that Obama believes more in his own greatness than in his own rhetoric. When it comes to politicians, that, at least, is a known quality.

Update: I slighted Jay Nordlinger by failing to provide a link to his commentary, as he noted here. It was an inadvertent mishap. His original commentary can be found here.

Will Bower, 36, walked around the Mall with millions of other Americans this morning. But unlike nearly everyone else in the crowd, Bower wasn’t cheering. He wore a Hillary Clinton tee shirt (adorned with a Hillary for President sticker) to show his support for the woman he feels the Democratic Party and a sexist media stole the election from. Bower recently left his job as an intellectual property researcher at Thomson Reuters in order to work full time for the pro-Clinton group he co-founded, PUMA (Party Unity My Ass) ‘08. Bower, who is now living off of savings to work full time on what he calls his “labor of love,” has focused his efforts on reforming the primary system, which he says is undemocratic. Newsweek's Suzanne Smalley spoke with Bower by phone today.

NEWSWEEK: Is PUMA still active?

Bower: Yes. People feel like we don’t have a clear objective. The problem is we have many clear objectives. During the 2008 primaries, so many things went wrong and we were inspired by so many of them–primary reform, misogyny in media, media reform….There are many different PUMAs [dedicated to different issues].

What do you mean by many different PUMAs?

There are a lot of different PUMA web sites and PUMA actions. There is still plenty of emailing and web activity. We all have different web sites and leaders. We all get along and agree on most things. My biggest thing is the need for primary reform...That’s probably not going to be a hot topic for a few years, but I’m working on it for down the road. I’m working on lobbying the Republican National Committee to work on primary reform there…I want them to learn from the mistakes the Democrats made in 2008. The primacy of Iowa and New Hampshire–why are we held hostage by these two small states? It’s insanity.

Are they not representative states?

No, they’re really not. Everyone thinks Iowa has this really engaged citizenry and they know what they’re doing. But fewer than 10 percent of Iowa voters participate….Since 1972 the caucuses have failed Democrats at every turn. [Some people will say] Obama won Iowa and went on to win. Well, we’ll see in four years whether Iowa has really served us. It’s basically about who has the best ground game.

Do you plan on working for PUMA indefinitely?

I intend on being critical of Barack Obama for the next four years. I do recognize him as president. I think he’s the rightful president, but I don’t think he’s the rightful leader of the Democratic Party. That sounds ironic, but I believe that Hillary Clinton…was the winner and represented the will of the people. She is my political leader….I wanted her to stay in the Senate, be the lion of the Senate, the next Ted Kennedy. I wanted her to be her own boss…and represent the 18 million who voted for her. Now that she’s in the executive branch I’m looking at her as our shadow president…A lot of us are taking comfort in the fact that she’ll be our shadow president and someone to look out for our interests abroad.

Did you go to the inauguration?

I wasn’t going to go out to the festivities, but I went out in my Hillary gear [a tee shirt depicting Clinton as Rosie the Riveter].…There were two thumbs ups, a couple of scoffs, and a lot of stares.

Why did you go?

I was going to lock myself in and not watch TV and I got a few calls from friends saying, ‘Aren’t you going to participate?’…And then I said I might as well go outside and watch and then I thought I might as well be supportive of Hillary while I do it.

How does it make you feel seeing all of the exuberance over Obama and his inauguration?

I feel that this is supposed to be Hillary’s day, to be honest. I feel he’s unqualified….A lot of what scares me is Obama mania and all. I feel like I’m living in "American Idol," a four-year episode of "American Idol"…It feels like mass hysteria–the pictures, the jargon….If this were all going on for Hillary I’d like to think I’d take a step back and say, ‘This is crazy.’ It is a little unsettling, the fanaticism.

What is your reaction to what Jill Biden said on the Oprah Winfrey Show yesterday [that her husband, Vice President Joe Biden, was given his choice of jobs – secretary of state or vice president]?

It seems like it’s a never-ending stream of minor insults. Every step of the way the Obama administration finds a way to insult Hillary. They’re finding a way to take another jab at Hillary–that she got sloppy seconds….The fact that Dr. Biden was so casual about something like that means a lot.

When you say it means a lot what do you mean?

I don’t think these are naïve people. She’s a politician’s wife…It’s hard to believe someone would be that careless on Oprah.

Tell me more about your focus on primary reform.

It took one state to determine who our candidate would be (in 2004). I’m from Ohio and knew John Kerry would not win Ohio so I felt trapped by what Iowa had done to us….When I saw what happened in 2004 I wrote a proposal in December 2007 and that was published. Then Huffington Post picked it up. I want a truly mathematical, geometrical system…to order primaries based on margins of victory in the general election before…to focus on the Ohios, Pennsylvanias and Wisconsins and Floridas – the states right in the middle, the purple states. Parties go after those states anyway; we might as well tailor our primaries that way, to appeal to voters in those states instead of getting candidates who appeal to extremes, John Kerry on one side and George Bush on the other.

Were you one of the PUMAs supporting McCain?

I was…for a few reasons. I wanted McCain to win so I could go back to being a Democrat, so the behavior in the primaries would not be rewarded. I went on to genuinely like McCain. It gave me a chance to get outside of the Democrat bubble I’ve been living in. I’ve voted for 18 years and never voted for anything but Democrats. It started as a protest vote and I ended up liking and admiring John McCain. Now I call myself an independent Democrat kind of like Joe Lieberman.

Given all the problems facing us, are you rooting for Obama to succeed?

Yes. I don’t want him to fail; that would be bad for the country. I plan on being critical of him though. He’s already dropped the ball. He campaigned on the fact that he would lift the Bush ban [on stem cells and] now is saying, ‘Leave it to Congress.’…The pledges [he made] were political in nature. There was very little conviction behind them and it surprises me how few Democrats see that. I’m going to do my best to get Democrats and liberals to hold him accountable.

I was fortunate enough to be in the Orange section of the crowd at today's inauguration ceremony--yep, right down the front, on the southwest side of the Capitol. I couldn't really see much, and you've probably seen the best shots on TV already and heard the enormous applause and spontaneous "O-ba-ma" and "Yes We Can" chants. But for those who weren't lucky enough to be in the crowd, I thought you might enjoy a completely unscientific wrap-up of what I heard in the crowd around me.

• Person who got a surprisingly passionate series of boos: Joe Lieberman
  
• Person who got a surprisingly enthusiastic cheer: Colin Powell
• Person who I thought would get a few cheers but was greeted with silence: John McCain
  
• Person who elicited the funniest heckles: Dick Cheney
• Person who got an uncomfortable spattering of golf claps and a few boos (and many boos in other sections): George W. Bush
  
• People outside of the Obama family who got the biggest cheers: Bill and Hillary Clinton
• Former official, outside of the Clinton family, who got the biggest cheers: Al Gore
  
• Line of Obama's speech that elicited the biggest cheer (in my section): "We say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."
• Runner up for most popular line (amongst people in my section): "Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy."
• Most amusing insult to naughty people trying to cut in line: "Obama can see you!"
• Loudest exclamation of relief as Marine One took off, carrying Former President Bush one last time: "I can breathe again!"
  
  

Barack Obama's post-inaugural lunch had hardly begun when Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy collapsed with a seizure, according to a House spokesperson. Reporters in a room outside the luncheon heard a shriek, then witnessed several people running through the rotunda toward Statuary Hall. Kennedy was taken out of the room on a wheelchair into an adjacent room.

The seizure lasted about a minute. Kennedy started shaking in his chair, then convulsing. After Teresa Heinz Kerry briefly tried to administer first aid, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry left with Kennedy, who was in a wheelchair. According to Hatch, Kennedy was conscious the whole time. After he was taken out, a prayer was offered. Georgia Representative John Lewis says Kennedy is now doing better, responding to medication.

In the room, everyone reports hearing people yell "Move!", almost before most people noticed that Kennedy was convulsing. President Obama, along with Hatch, helped get Kennedy out of the room. Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd says that he escorted Kennedy to an ambulance: "He was joking as he got into the ambulance, saying 'well, I guess ill see you later' -- he's doing much better now and will be just fine." Several dozen senators left the luncheon in a clearly emotional state, especially Senator Kerry, who walked by yelling reporters but declined to talk.

Early reports said that it was Senator Robert Byrd, not Kennedy, who collapsed. In fact, and to the confusion of several people in the room, Byrd had left moments earlier for a different health reason that's still unclear, though the Los Angeles Times reports that the senator's staff says he is in good condition.

Later in the afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took the senate floor to lead a brief session following the inaugural luncheon. "Our minds are not really on the events of today, but for the fact that senator Kennedy took ill during the lunch and is now in a Washington hospital. He and I sat together at the inauguration. We had such a wonderful time visiting and talking about where we were and where we are."

He then asked the assembled senate to bow  and pray during a silent moment.

 

... Mr. James Taylor, awaiting security screening. As far as I could tell, Taylor was only packing a single weapon: his dulcet, understated tenor.

... Mr. Dustin Hoffman, seated a few rows in front of your humble correspondent.

... Mayor Michael Bloomberg, seated a few rows behind your humble correspondent. Clearly we were positioned in ascending order of political influence.

... Mr. President.

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.  I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.  

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.  The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace.  Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms.  At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.  

So it has been.  So it must be with this generation of Americans. 

Barack Obama began working on his inaugural address almost two months ago, according to senior aides to the incoming president. The week before Thanksgiving, the president-elect sat down with his speechwriting team, including top writer Jon Favreau, to sketch out broad themes of what he wanted to say today. Favreau completed a first draft by the first week of December. Shortly before Obama left for Hawaii for his Christmas vacation, the incoming president went over the draft with Favreau, who wrote a second version of the speech over the holidays. Yet aides say it was Obama who ultimately wrote the bulk of the speech.  Two weekends ago, Obama holed up in his room at the Hay Adams Hotel in Washington, where he and his family stayed earlier this month, and worked on what aides described as “extensive writing” on his own. “He had very strong ideas early on about what he wanted to convey,” a senior Obama aide tells Newsweek. The speech you’ll hear today is more than 60 percent Obama’s own words, the aide adds.

Obama has said he re-read inaugural addresses delivered by Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, whose speech he described as “intimidating.” Indeed, upon completing the bulk of the speech today, Obama asked Ted Sorenson, Kennedy’s chief speechwriter, to read a draft of his speech and give input. According to Obama aides, the speech was also read by historians Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of the Lincoln biography “Team of Rivals,” which has been mentioned as one of Obama’s favorite books, and David McCullough. It’s unclear how much advice the group gave Obama and his team, though the broad overviews of the speech provided in advance by aides do hint at the sweeping rhetoric of JFK and Lincoln, two presidents who led the country at transformational times.

In the speech, according to aides, Obama will acknowledge that America faces difficult challenges ahead. But, citing the nation’s history of overcoming past struggles without taking “short cuts,” the president-elect will “express optimism and hope” that the nation can rise to the challenge of the “enormity of the task we are facing,” says a senior Obama aide. “The speech will describe the moment we’re in, and the spirit required to emerge from this crisis even stronger and more united than before,” says a senior Obama aide.

Over the last week, the president-elect has gone through several read-throughs of the speech, which aides say will run between 18 and 20 minutes. The Obama team is expected to release excerpts of what exactly the incoming president will say later this morning.

Oh when the saints go marching in
When the saints go marching in
Oh Lord I want to be there in that number
When the saints go marching in!

After a few rounds of this, a smaller group starts a new chorus:

Oh when Obama goes marching in...

But most people got the point the first time around.