Politics, Music, and other thoughts

I've been watching the events of the Inauguration of President Obama for the last hour or so, and I had a few thoughts that I thought I'd share.
1 - I feel really bad for President Bush during this whole thing. From his perspective it could very easily been seen as a giant slap in the face. Everyone is always saying things like "it's time to start anew", and phrases like that. One of the commentators mentioned that President Bush firmly believes that history will redeem him, and I hope that's true. I don't think that he did a bad job during his 8 years in office, I think that there were too many things that spiraled too far out of control, and he did the best he could, and got blamed for the rest.
2 - I'm tired of everyone talking about how Obama is the first African American President. Yes, it is a momentous occasion, but seriously, we know already! During the election people were saying that they didn't want to vote for him because he was black, but because of who he is. If race isn't the issue here then please stop making it the issue.
3 - I absolutely love that they had Yo Yo Ma, and Itzak Perlman playing something composed by John Williams. If ever someone were going to give a tribute to me, heck, I'd take that. They both just look so at ease with their instruments, and like they are having fun with it. It was a treat to watch them.
4 - For those who are trying to get "In God we Trust" taken off of the coins and whatnot...There were two prayers given during the Inauguration. EAT IT! This country was founded largely on a religious basis, it's always thrived on it, so deal with it. The religious implications are staying.
5 - I admit, I watched very anxiously, almost expecting someone to make some horrible attack on the platform that held pretty much every leader in this nation. I'm glad that nothing happened, but I was still very worried about it. That's something that our nation would have a hard time recovering from.

Overall I really enjoyed watching the inauguration. I'm glad that we can have such an incredibly peaceful transfer of power, especially when there are so many dictators that would gladly destroy half of their own country in order to achieve control of it. I enjoy watching the amount of ceremony and respect that is associated with these procedings. What I'm saying next has nothing to do with the actual inauguration, but with the whole election circus that we went through a few months ago. And yes, I intentionally said circus. It seems to me that we no longer have a politician in office, it has somehow turned to having a celebrity in office. The President has become purely a figurehead. It reminds me of the description of the President of the Imperial Galactic Goverernment. "The President in particular is very much a figurehead - he weields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choise, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it."
Now I'm not saying that this is entirely the case with the President of the United States, but sometimes it seems that way. I have great hopes that Barack will do great things. I didn't vote for him (ok, I didn't vote), but I have always hoped that maybe his inexperience will be a good thing. Maybe we need someone who thinks outside of the proverbial box, and can get things done in a different way. Not necessarily because they're different, but because he hasn't been trained in the "bad habits" of how things are currently being done.