Half the Crowd Expected for Obama's Second Inauguration
Events scaled back
After the promises of hope and change four years ago, Barack Obama's second inauguration is likely to be a more sober affair, despite the superstar wattage of Beyoncé singing The Star Spangled Banner and the $50m-plus price tag for the weekend's festivities in Washington DC.
The record-breaking 1.8 million spectators who packed the National Mall to see America's first black president take the oath of office in 2009 will be replaced by a crowd expected to be less than half that size. After four years of a sluggish economy, the array of inauguration balls that followed Obama's assumption of the presidency has been whittled down to two official events this time: the inaugural ball, at Washington's cavernous convention centre, and the commander-in-chief's ball, to honour the US military.
Obama will make history in another way on Monday, becoming the first US president to be sworn in four separate times. On the first occasion, in 2009, the supreme court chief justice, John Roberts, muffed the wording of the oath of office, so Roberts and Obama held a second, untelevised oath-taking that evening.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?