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After the concert, there was a late-night prayer...
10:43, 2010-Feb-3
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After the concert, there was a late-night prayer service at the First Baptist Church, and it was after midnight when I got back to Blair HouseThough it was getting better, I still wasnt satisfied with the inaugural addressMy speechwriters, Michael Waldman and David Kusnet, must have been tearing their hair out, because as we practiced between one and four in the morning on inauguration day, I was still changing itBruce Lindsey, Paul Begala, Bruce Reed, George Stephanopoulos, Michael Sheehan, and my wordsmith friends Tommy Caplan and Taylor Branch stayed up with meThe terrific staff at Blair House was used to taking care of foreign heads of state who kept all kinds of hours, so they were ready with gallons of coffee to keep us awake and snacks to keep us in a reasonably good humorBy the time I went to bed for a couple of hours sleep, I was feeling better about the speech
Wednesday morning dawned cold and clearI began the day with an early-morning security briefing, then I received instructions on how my military aide would handle the launching of our nuclear weaponsThe President has five military aides, one outstanding young officer from each service branch; one louis vuitton replica handbags of them is near him at all times
Though a nuclear exchange seemed unthinkable with the Cold War over, assuming the control of our arsenal was a sober reminder of the responsibilities just a few hours awayTheres a difference between knowing about the presidency and actually being PresidentIts hard to describe in words, but I left Blair House with my eagerness tempered by humility
The last activity before the inauguration was a prayer service at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal ChurchIt was important to meWith input from Hillary and Al Gore, I had picked the participating clergy, the singers, and the musicHillarys family and mine were thereRoger was grinning, and enjoying the musicBoth our pastors from home participated in the service, as did Al and Tippers ministers, and George Stephanopouloss father, the Greek Orthodox dean of the Holy Trinity Cathedral in New YorkFather Otto Hentz, who, almost thirty years earlier, had asked me to consider becoming a Jesuit, said a prayerRabbi Gene Levy from Little Rock and Imam Wallace DSeveral black clergymen who were friends of mine participated, with DrGardner Taylor, one of Americas greatest preachers of any race chanel fashion or denomination, giving the principal addressMy Pentecostal friends from Arkansas and Louisiana sang, along with Phil Driscoll, a fabulous singer and trumpeter Al knew from Tennessee, and Carolyn Staley sang Be Not Afraid, one of my favorite hymns and a good lesson for the dayTears welled up in my eyes several times during the service, and I left it uplifted and ready for the hours ahead
We went back to Blair House to look at the speech for the last timeIt had gotten a lot better since 4 aAt ten, Hillary, Chelsea, and I walked across the street to the White House, where we were met on the front steps by President and MrsBush, who took us inside for coffee with the Gores and the QuaylesRon and Alma Brown were also thereI wanted Ron to share a moment he had done so much to make possibleI was struck by how well President and MrsBush dealt with a painful situation and a sad partingit was obvious that they had become close to several members of the staff and would miss and be missed by themAt about 10:45, we all got into limousinesFollowing tradition, President Bush and I rode together, with Speaker Foley and Wendell Ford, the gravelly-voiced senator from Kentucky who louis vuitton new bags was co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies and who had worked hard for the narrow victory that Al and I had won in his state
Fortunately, the ongoing Capitol restoration project had required the last three inaugurations to be held on the buildings west frontBefore that, they had taken place on the other side, facing the Supreme Court and the Library of CongressMost of the people who came could not have seen the ceremonies from that viewpointThe crowd, which filled the large grounds of the Capitol and spilled back over onto the Mall and up Constitution and Pennsylvania avenues, was estimated by the National Park Service to be between 280,000 and 300,000 peopleWhatever the number, the throng was big, and full of all kinds of people, old and young, of all races and faiths, from all walks of lifeI was happy that so many people who had made this day possible were there to share in it
Many of the FOBs who came illustrated the extent to which I was indebted to my personal friends: Marsha Scott and Martha Whetstone, who organized my campaigns in northern California, were old friends from Arkansas; Sheila Bronfman, leader of the Arkansas rolex replica supplies Travelers, had lived around the corner from Hillary and me when I was attorney general; Dave Matter, my leader in western Pennsylvania, had succeeded me as class president at Georgetown; Bob Raymar and Tom Schneider, two of my most important fund-raisers, were friends from law school and Renaissance WeekendThere were so many people like them who had made this day possible
The ceremony started at 11:30All the principals walked out onto the platform according to protocol order with their congressional escortsPresident Bush went just before me, with the Marine Band, under Colonel John Bourgeois, playing Hail to the Chief for both of usI gazed out onto the vast crowd
Then Al Gore took the oath of office, administered by Supreme Court Justice Byron WhiteThe oath was originally going to be administered by retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a great civil rights lawyer whom President Johnson had made the first black on the high court, but he had fallen illIt would have been unusual for a retired justice to do the honors, but Marshalls son, Thurgood JrAnother son, John, was a Virginia state trooper who had led our inaugural motorcade from Monticello to dior Washingto
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