My Inauguration Day trip to the Mall

Back home after several hours making our way down to the Mall -- and back. We did have tickets, but never did manage to make it through the "Blue Gate." It was a mess. Oh well. Along the way, people were great. From the walk down Connecticut Avenue to the Metro to the wait in line. Everybody we met was in a great mood. Cold, but very happy.

The Metro was crowded, but ran like clockwork. Very impressive:

So, everyone seemed to do their job today -- especially the people who attended the event. On every part of today's excursion, we met the nicest people. People were talking to each other, sharing their Obama stories and basically just reveling in the experience of this historic event. Everyone was orderly and extremely polite, which was just very cool.

Well, everyone did their job except the people who controlled tickets and security. Look, it was a great, historic day for America and the world. So I don't want to take away from that. But. We are a news blog, and the way the inauguration went for hundreds of thousands of people still waiting to get in at noon is relevant news. You have to understand that the one thing that the Inaugural Committee did have control over was how many tickets were distributed. They knew. That means they should have known how long it would take to get people through security. Shouldn't be that complicated. Senator Feinstein should have asked a few questions about that part of the plan. Here's the view at the "Blue Gate" around 11:40 a.m. when all the ticket holders should have been in - all of these people missed out. And, it was much worse for the thousands of attendees who were stuck in a tunnel, via TPM. Hopefully by pointing this fact out it will be addressed in four years during Obama's next inaugural, so no one misses out again:

Anyway, it didn't ruin the day for me. But, it might have for others who waited for a long time in 20 degree weather.

The important thing is that Obama is the President and George Bush is gone from D.C. This was my view -- and we left right after the 21-gun salute:

To top it off, I did get to see Don King at the Huffington Post party last night. This was a site to see:

Okay, to really top it off, I also got a kiss from Rachel Maddow last night when we met.