I watched it live. It took a moment for people to realize it was Bush’s turn, then there was wild cheering. As soon as he finished, there was more wild cheering. 0bama did not receive any cheering at all.
I watched it live on the local NYC channel and made the following observations: After President Bush read the letter Lincoln wrote to the mother who lost five sons in the civil war, the crowd absolutely did cheer. After obama read the psalm (probably the first one he’s ever read in his life) no one even clapped. On the local channel coverage there were no interruptions with talking heads - only the reading of the names by the families. When one woman mentioned “Jesus Christ the savior”, the crowed cheered. Then there was the immigrant man with the Italian accent who spoke of his beloved daughter who died on 9/11 took his opportunity to say “we should never forget that radical Islamists did this” and thanked the military who gave their lives for freedeom and spoke of how much he loved America - the crowd cheered. When the boy who said he was in his mother’s belly when his dad died thanked his father for giving him life and wished he were here to share it with him, the crowd was moved. After watching for a while I went to church where we had a lovely service and reading of names from our community, our priest spoke angrily about the NY Times editorial which criticized Pope Benedict. At the end of the day, I feel hopeful that good will triumph over evil and that the people do get it.
“The Won” mustn’t have been amused...
Not even a Bronx cheer for the Bamster? He may have felt left out...