Inaugural Hell

The Daily Beast ^ | 1/4/09 | Lyric Winik

[browardchad]

Scott Andrews / AP

Message to you out-of-towners heading to Washington, D.C. for your first presidential inauguration: You will be miserable.

January 20 is shaping up to be the inauguration celebration of our lifetimes. Which is fitting, because there’s a dirty little secret about Washington, D.C., and the inaugural balls: if you’ve ever been to one, you’ll never go back.

Inaugurals are a miserable experience. This will come as sad news to the Obamaphiles who forked over checks for $50,000 to be granted the title of “finance chair” for the Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC). It will probably be even sadder news to those who opted for the $300,000 package, which gives them four tickets to all official inaugural events. Except if you read the not-so-fine print: that $300,000 doesn’t include any tickets to the actual inauguration itself.

>>snip<<

So, what exactly does one get for $50,000? Your contribution entitles you to a late night event on Saturday, January 17, a welcome brunch with an unnamed special guest on the following day, unspecified welcoming events, evening events, a thank-you dinner, a breakfast meeting on Martin Luther King Day, and various bi-partisan dinners. ... And according to the initial inauguration invites, as a bonus, your $50,000 donation also entitles you to be shaken down further for Hillary Clinton’s “debt relief” and “the Al Franken Recount Fund.”

>>snip<<

“The official balls are basically like bad proms,” says the wife of one well-connected congressman.

 

[OpusatFR]

Pray for snow.

[browardchad]

Pray for snow.

Oh, I have been -- and sleet, and freezing temps. With apologies to DC Freepers, of course.

[SoftballMominVA]

Don't worry about the DC FReepers and snow. We'll be fine :) We can handle weather.

I, too, am praying HARD for snow, sleet, freezing rain, hail, whatever. Anything but clear skies

[browardchad]

Don't worry about the DC FReepers and snow. We'll be fine :) We can handle weather.

Thanks for the absolution!

[polymuser]

.

All the events will be highly green and organic, right?

.

[Kozak]

Any sane person in the DC area will be out of town the entire week of the Inauguration.

[cubreporter]

Can you just even begin to imagine the coverage from the dips on TV and news stations?????? All botoxed up and lip glossed to the max???? Yipes...thank God we have a life. :)

[cubreporter]

Can you just even begin to imagine the coverage from the dips on TV and news stations?????? All botoxed up and lip glossed to the max???? Yipes...thank God we have a life. :)

[cubreporter]

Yes and glad you agree. Am sure there will be lots of others out there doing the same thing.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Can anyone tell me if they close off streets so the anointed one can get from event to event? Sounds like DC is going to be complete gridlock, even to pedestrian traffic.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

If you do that, you'll probably miss some of the greatest speeches ever. Too bad they won't be original. I think Biden is going to recite the lyrics to “Thick As A Brick” by Jethro Tull or “The Trees” by Rush. Of course he wrote both.

[ArrogantBustard]

Inaugural Ball?

I plan to spend the day in the mountains, at the rifle range ...

shooting some nice .30 cal M2 Ball ;'}.

[browardchad]

Can anyone tell me if they close off streets so the anointed one can get from event to event? Sounds like DC is going to be complete gridlock, even to pedestrian traffic.

I don't have any special knowledge, but from the article, there's this:

Because of security, if you are lucky enough to have a car and driver, a limo, or even a cab, and survive the near-total gridlock enveloping Washington...

And that's based on the last inauguration, which didn't quite have the cult of personality mystique this one does, so I'd assume a mess, at best.

[browardchad]

There's this also; you can only read page 1 of the cached version -- it was removed with 12 hours of posting, IIRC:

Huge security buildup ahead of inauguration
Police, agents and troops prepare for what may be largest ever such effort

[cubreporter]

Well, I guess I’ll just have to google Inauguration Speeches of the past if I want to hear some good ones. Just can’t bring outselves to watch any politician anymore. Not a one and...the thought of sitting there listening to the motor mouths of the news media gives us even bigger nightmares. We’ll find some other fun, important and sensible things to do. :)

[Hot Tabasco]

So, what exactly does one get for $50,000?

No mention of an open bar or horney chicks.........I'll pass this year.