Inauguration-British Coverage

Admittedly I am not the biggest Barak Obama fan in the pile although I wish him the best of luck. I don't want him to fail, seriously. If he fails, then my country fails...and who in their right mind would want that. Of course I couldn't help but notice the smiles on George W Bush and Laura Bush's faces. Some people thought they were hopped up on happy pills, my take was they were saying "OK Hot Shot, this mess is allllll yours now", but I digress.

Now here in England I had 4 choices of what channel to watch the inauguration on. I could go with the BBC, Sky News, CNN International, or FoxNews International. For the actual swearing in ceremony I went with FoxNews, then for the post game wrap up and parade I went with the BBC. Reason being CNN International is crap, half of the time they don't even have American news on and their commercials suck (yes, their commercials suck and that is a perfectly valid reason not to watch their coverage). FoxNews had the standard coverage that Americans are used to, nothing spectacular.

Now the Brits! I thought Americans were excited for change but wow...I think the anchors and reporters were more excited than the people they were interviewing. On the radio earlier in the day, about noon, the radio disc jockey on BBC Radio 1 was just excited. It seems that Obama mania has swept this country. The only thing that bothered me was the focus on President Obama's race. It seemed like they were calling out America for being a racist country, when in reality the UK has their own racial problems, just like America. Just take a look at the recent debacle that Prince Harry stirred up here. It was almost to say that President Obama got elected because of his race or dispite of his race and really I don't know which is more offensive. I know if I was President Obama, I would want to know that I got elected because of my merrits. On the other hand, excited Brits are fun to watch, considering it is hard to enough to get a British newscaster excited about anything. They are usually extremely pulled together and seem emotionless. Think, 1950's newscasters in America with their dry delivery of the news, and strictly the news. No commentary. The coverage of the inauguration was the antithesis of that. They were animated and describing a couple of blips that had happened in DC such as the people not knowing how to get off the mall once the swearing in was over due to roads being closed. They fawned over Sasha and Malia. They adored Mrs. Obama. It was an international love fest for the first family.

Though I was slightly offended at some points, I am glad however that the world is excited about my country's new leader. I hope it will bring a change in the way that international politics are played. I hope that more of the world will be more with us as opposed to the laxidasical semi-support that it receives now. I also hope that President Obama can live up to the high expectations that the world is placing on his shoulders. Sometimes, Mr. President, you get what you ask for. I just hope you can accomplish all you have promised. Oh and it is funny to hear Brits say Barak Obama. Oh and Oprah is crazy. Just sayin.

Oh this is also a very interesting clip from the BBC featuring predictions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.