Pompousness and Circumstance
By Dana Milbank
WashPost
Friday, January 9, 2009
You might want to be sitting down before reading the next sentence.
Ready? Okay, here goes: Barack Obama was elected president of the United States yesterday.
Astute readers may have a recollection that this is old news, that Obama was elected on Nov. 4 and declared the winner that night by the likes of Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. But, as Al Gore can tell you, the popular vote gets you only so far -- and Obama's win wasn't official until 1:35 p.m. yesterday, when Vice President Cheney, presiding over a joint session of Congress on the House floor, read out the final tally of the electoral college.
It was done according to the ancient traditions: the mahogany boxes holding the state electoral certificates; the procession from the Senate to the House; the opening of the envelopes with silver knives; and the check-off of each state's results with a pencil on a tally sheet. Surrounded by such history, the lawmakers behaved themselves according to the current fashion: badly.
(More here.)
WashPost
Friday, January 9, 2009
You might want to be sitting down before reading the next sentence.
Ready? Okay, here goes: Barack Obama was elected president of the United States yesterday.
Astute readers may have a recollection that this is old news, that Obama was elected on Nov. 4 and declared the winner that night by the likes of Brian Williams, Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. But, as Al Gore can tell you, the popular vote gets you only so far -- and Obama's win wasn't official until 1:35 p.m. yesterday, when Vice President Cheney, presiding over a joint session of Congress on the House floor, read out the final tally of the electoral college.
It was done according to the ancient traditions: the mahogany boxes holding the state electoral certificates; the procession from the Senate to the House; the opening of the envelopes with silver knives; and the check-off of each state's results with a pencil on a tally sheet. Surrounded by such history, the lawmakers behaved themselves according to the current fashion: badly.
(More here.)
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