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I spent most of today watching CNN's coverage of the inauguration online. I was supposed to go to a seminar on research at noon, but since Obama wasn't inaugurated by then, I skipped and rescheduled for Thursday. It was such a cool event to watch. I wish they would have played the West Wing theme. The piece composed by John Williams was pretty good though (better than the poetry readings.) I think it should be the free download of the week on Itunes. If not, I'll find it elsewhere, I'm sure...

This is my new favorite website, mostly because of the name in the upper left corner. I also like that there will be a blog updated often. One of the first entries is an introductory post about the goals of the blog, since there has never been one on the White House website before. One of the goals listed is "Participation" and the political science major in me swoons at this sentence: "One significant addition to WhiteHouse.gov reflects a campaign promise from the President: we will publish all non-emergency legislation to the website for five days, and allow the public to review and comment before the President signs it."

All I can think is, really? Asking the public to comment on legislation? Will people care? Will they take it seriously? Does it matter, if it gets people to participate? And if people do respond, will someone in the White House actually read the responses? Will they really be taken into account? Can it really change anything?

Well, as someone once said, "Yes, we can."

Optimism is a nice feeling.