Ted Sorenson liveblog

So Ted Sorenson has come and gone. He had some nice anecdotes, some nice turns of phrase. Most memorable? “If we had the 24-hour news cycle back during the Cuban Missile Crisis, we probably would have bombed those Cuban installations and started a Nuclear War.” It was nice to see a sort of montage of memorable inauguration speeches preceding his remarks. He was sometimes funny, always interesting.

You know what’s really cool? He’s on the Board of the Ethics Center (or something). Cool! I want to know more about that. Maybe he can use his vaunted connections to recoup the 400 thousand dollar shortfall in the Ethics Center Budget.

I did ask him a question at the end. It went along the lines of “Obama talks a lot about Post-Partisanship. What does that mean to you? For us liberals, it seems to be remarkably similar to “centrism” or moving to the right. Can you assuage those fears?”

His response was something along the lines of “stop whining, trust us.”

I trusted the government once. I’m disinclined to do that ever again.

There are so many people here to see Ted Sorenson that some have to be barred entrance to the theatre due to fire codes. Therefore – let the liveblogging commence!

This event hosted by the ethics center

The Director of the Ethics center is talking about inaugural addresses – the most sacred texts of the American civil religion, barring the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Ted Sorenson is on the board of the ethics center. who knew?

now we’re watching old inaugural addresses – JFK, Reagan, Clinton

Jonah Seligman is up – introducing Ted Sorenson.

And the microphone dies.And again.

Seligman – “Ted was a true liberal, but a loyal American.” . A Joke?

And Mr. Sorenson is up!

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“Pay no attention to the fact that I can’t really see you. I have more vision than the current President of the United States.”

I’m going to pay attention to the speech now.

TS – Reagan: Explicitly conservative, materialstic. “Inaugual addresses are not the place for campaign speeches”.

TS – Kennedy’s address is subject to much myth. Ask not -who penned particular pasgein the speech. Ask why the ideas, fire, policies, etc havebeen largely forgotten.

TS – It was not just a cold war speech. Read the 2nd half!

TS then talked about his thoughts on inaugural addresses,

We are now treated to a poem by T. Sorenson,

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Professor Joseph responds, “The best American Presidents ask Americans to step out of their paradigm.”

TS – George Bush made Obama’s victory possib;e. He was so bad that people would vote for a liberal democrat who happens to be black.