On Tuesday I attended Barack Obama's inauguration as president of the United States and wrote about the event for the Daily Gazette. This was the third inauguration I've covered as a journalist. The first was in 2001 as a student columnist for my college newspaper the Ithacan. The second was in 2005 as a freelance journalist writing for several newspapers.
In between I lived in Washington D.C. during the fall semester of 2001 and got a sense of the city as it changed from a peacetime capitol into a terrorist target.
Inaugurations seem like turning point days and our nation's capitol reflects that more acutely than anywhere else.

In 2001 I remember the Georgetown bar scene as it was invaded by Republicans from Texas and other states. The song of the night was "Don't get fooled again" by the Who.
D.C. is an overwhelmingly Democratic Party town and Republicans are always in the minority on the street, even when they control the White House and Congress. According to the D.C. Board of Elections 75 percent of registered voters in the city are Democrats and only 7 percent are Republicans. That's certainly one of the most severe ratios in the country, if not the most. But in 2001, after eight years of President Clinton and despite the contested election of 2000, it seemed like Bush enjoyed some measure of reluctant acceptance among D.C. dwellers I talked to.

I remember one black man at a bar who opposed Bush but who was also impressed that he was appointing so many African-Americans to high cabinet posts, something the man said "he didn't have to do." There were protestors, there always are, but they didn't have much specifically to protest about with a new president taking office. I watched Bush be sworn in during a light cold rain as my boots sunk into mud standing in the general public section of the audience.
In 2005 I got much closer using a press pass, but I was still pretty far back from the action. The weather was much colder. Most of the people where I was listened to Bush's speech while trying to keep warm with their dress shoes a few inches deep in hard packed snow. Security was tighter for the event that year. Nobody without a ticket could get within blocks. Sept. 11 was still hanging in the air.

Protestors aren't allowed within the enclosed sections of presidential inaugurations, banners and signs are prohibited, but a few always seem to sneak through. While Bush talked about the need to eradicate racism around the world one protestor with a sign that said "Exit?" yelled for the president to "Bring home the troops!" Protestors would sneak into Obama's ceremony too, but they were far more polite to him.

And I was closer to witness it. This time around I obtained a press pass for Section 8 Green, only three sections back from the podium. I first traveled into the city Monday to collect the pass from the U.S. Senate Press Gallery at the Russell Senate Office building. This was a homecoming for me of a sorts as I was a senate intern in 2001 before anthrax attacks shut down the building I was working in.

On the way to Capitol Hill I saw how much excitement there was on the faces of seemingly everyone in the city. There were tourists from all over the country who'd come to see the first African-American sworn in as president and everywhere there were people cashing in on Obama. I saw street vendors selling Obama t-shirts, buttons and hats with Obama's name bedazzled on them. The cult of personality around Barack Obama out matched anything I've seen for an American politician living or dead.

Also, the homeless were nowhere to be seen. The Associated Press Jan. 16 reported that officials were creating a homeless free zone during the inauguration that would include the National Mall, Capitol Hill and the more than 10 blocks that would make up the parade route.

That alone changed the atmosphere at Union Station, the stop on D.C.'s metro subway system I used to get to the senate office buildings. I remember most days when I was an intern there was a homeless black woman with zebra stripes painted on her face camped near a statue in front of the station. She would chant rhythmically as hundreds of congressional staffers shuffled past her into work.

After waiting in a long line at the Russell building, I finally got my press pass. It was a green ticket explaining where to sit and it was the same pass given to other reporters working for daily newspapers. We wouldn't find out until the next day that the passes weren't really "press passes" at all, just tickets to a pretty good section of the audience. This created confusion when so many reporters, myself included, showed up at the inauguration at 5 a.m. wanting to take our seats and we didn't have the same photo ID press passes given to TV journalists and photographers with long lens cameras for the platforms above the inauguration. Section 8 Green wasn't supposed to open up until 8 a.m. but through some fast talking, and well-practiced journalistic complaining, I and a few others were able to con the capital cops into letting us in early by convincing them we had special "green media" press passes.

I sat in the first row of my section and I waited for hours for the inauguration to begin. I'd been up since 2:30 a.m. because I figured leaving early was only chance I had to penetrate the throngs of people expected at the event. It was cold but not as bad as 2005. I watched the sun rise above the capital building as hundreds of thousands of people began to mass behind me to watch the ceremony.

In Section 8 Green there was almost a carnival atmosphere with celebrities popping up left and right. Hip hop singer Usher and his entourage showed up in the section to take pictures. One of Usher's bodyguards told people he was trying to keep a low profile. Senate hopeful Caroline Kennedy was one section up from mine. I regretted later not hopping over the divider and trying to interview her.

Other notables included Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie Jackson and Don King. King's seat was actually closer than Kennedy's was and I spotted him easily from my chair because of his trademark troll doll hairdo.

One section back a few protestors from Code Pink somehow sneaked into the inauguration. They had a banner woven into the inside of their coats that asked President Obama to "Please lead us out of Iraq." For protestors they looked remarkably happy to be there. What the Code Pink ladies thought of Obama's pledge that the U.S. will "...begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan", I don't know. They were removed by security before Obama spoke.
From my vantage point I heard both loud cheers and boos for President Bush as he made his way to the platform. I suspect the crowd must have been largely made up of partisan Democrats because each of the former Democratic presidents were loudly cheered and President George H. W. Bush was also booed. In 2005 the only person I heard booed was former Democratic nominee for president John Kerry.
Obama's speech was well received. The flub with Justice Roberts and the oath was barely noticed. I can't say I saw the waters parted when he spoke but I know tears flowed from more than a few.

After the speech was over I think I did notice some of the anti-Bush venom recede as President Bush and his wife got onto the helicopter to leave the Capitol. I heard one man mutter "and don't let the door hit you on the way out", but most people cheered and waved as the helicopter flew by.
I didn't attempt to leave Capitol Hill until long after Obama's inaugural address. By some estimates nearly 2 million people had packed the National Mall to witness history and the city didn't begin to unwind until the sun went back down. On my way back to Union Station I noticed the homeless were back. I saw one man who appeared to be homeless wearing a neon orange ski hat and furiously shouting obscenities at a prostitute who wasn't there. He was the only angry black person I saw all day.