Carolyn and I really enjoyed watching We Are One, the big concert which was broadcast live today from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. There's a point with me where too much singing and talking of patriotism gets to sounding rote and insincere. (I always liked Lewis Black's joke about how after a multi-hour Super Bowl pre-game show, he was actually sick of freedom.) But this was a pretty grand event, especially the performance by Garth Brooks…plus, it was great to see Pete Seeger up there, leading the crowd in "This Land is Your Land." It's starting to really feel like it is.
My McCain-voting friends will probably object to me writing the following…but I can't imagine this country having such a deep, moving sense of optimism if the gentleman from Arizona and the lady from Alaska were being sworn in tomorrow. For one thing, the day wouldn't be about change and taking the nation in a new direction. It would have been about trying to be George W. Bush but to be better at it. They wouldn't have had Springsteen and Beyoncé and James Taylor and all the others there today, either. It would have been Pat Boone singing about God first and country second, and interjecting prayers to repeal the estate tax.
By the way: Can anyone tell me why Tom Hanks always looks so pained every time we see him lately? He has honors and money and a spectacular wife, and they gave him the best speech of the afternoon to read. Why does he always look like he's on Celebrity Fear Factor and they're about to make him eat iguana testicles?
It's still a little stunning that we're about to inaugurate Barack "Unelectable" Obama. I keep hearing people ask each other, "Did you ever think you'd see this country make a black man president?" I always tell them, "Yes, but I thought I'd be using a walker and gumming my food before that happened." In a way, it's more amazing that the man is young and bright…and most amazingly, urban. No longer do you have to thicken your country accent and/or go out and chop brush to convince American voters you're one of them.
The best thing though is that he's bringing out the best in us. People may have voted for him because they hated Bush but polls are saying he has a 66%-80% incoming approval rating, which means he's won over a lot of McCain voters. I can't recall an incoming president with such a wave of optimism around him. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.
The We Are One concert repeats here and there tomorrow on HBO, and there are a zillion video clips online. In fact, you can watch the whole thing on this page. I'm going to keep it on my TiVo for a while and watch it again.