Dear New Red-Headed White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki,
I have scanned your press briefing for Inauguration Day, and I am quite that you missed an opportunity.
But it isn’t too late. I will love you forever if you say, “That was the smallest crowd to witness an inauguration, period.“ Think about it, Ms Psaki.
And while I’m at it:
Dear Rachel Maddow,
I already love you forever, but I will love your forever and an eon if you start your next show with this:
“We wrote an entire show, and then, at 4 p.m. ... we did not have to tear it up and start again, because there was no breaking news at 4 p.m., and on top of that it was not a “crazy news day.” It was actually pretty boring. I’m going to tell you now about something boring that happened in the Grover Cleveland administration, and then after twenty minutes I will tie it in with something boring that happened today.”
Think about it, Ms Maddow.
To be accurate, she'd probably have to say "smallest in-person crowd for a scheduled inauguration" because 1. there were probably waaaay more people watching this one online than ever, and 2. Calvin Coolidge.
But yes. That would have been glorious. :-)
I think I did see an Onion headline about Most American Flags To Ever Witness An Inauguration, which seems dimly plausible but would also be well-nigh impossible to fact-check, since we don't have numbers for prior inaugurations...
Anyway. I love things being functional and accurate. It is *delightful* and I hope everything gets cleaned up well.
Posted by: KC | January 24, 2021 at 05:05 PM
KC - well, modern-day inauguration, then. Someone else I know commented that the 12 thousand national guard alone surpassed the 10 thousand at Washington’s inauguration.
Posted by: TheQueen | January 25, 2021 at 01:35 PM
But not all the National Guard at DC were anywhere near within sight, so I am not sure they all count. But yes. "Smallest crowd to come see an inauguration in more than 50 years!" would likely work, I think, because the National Guard came there to protect the inauguration rather than see it. (it might also be possible to expand the time frame significantly with better word choice that blocks out Calvin Coolidge's inauguration)
At any rate: especially now, it is really nice to have a president whose first days in office were spent on presidential duties! And who leaves the inauguration crowd size nonsense to the rest of us. :-)
Posted by: KC | January 25, 2021 at 05:10 PM
KC -I like the redhead more every day. And today, a press conference in which the president answered questions without insulting the press.
Posted by: TheQueen | January 25, 2021 at 10:32 PM
I missed that there was a press conference at which the president *answered questions* - whew!
I did read his POTUS tweets today, and they were... complete, coherent thoughts without vitriol? And complete sentences, even, at least in general? (I didn't notice any to the contrary, although that is not a guarantee since I do not expect tweets to be complete sentences.)
Posted by: KC | January 25, 2021 at 11:44 PM
KC - it’s sooooo delightful that Trump can no longer tweet at ALL.
Posted by: TheQueen | January 27, 2021 at 01:57 PM
The noise level has gone down by a huge amount, especially now that Twitter is also not being hesitant to spank accounts, rather than just flagging tweets with content warnings, for peddling debunked election conspiracy theories for malicious profit.
It is indeed delightful.
Posted by: KC | January 27, 2021 at 03:31 PM
KC - long time coming, though .
Posted by: TheQueen | January 28, 2021 at 10:28 PM
Yeah, would have been nice if they'd banned him, oh, 8 years ago or so.
It'll be a long time going, too. Especially if the GOP decides to go full-on Trump Base Appealing like it looks like they're aiming for. If you can't even get an impeachment conviction for sending people to physically threaten and/or kill congress, I... don't understand.
Posted by: KC | January 28, 2021 at 11:13 PM
KC - same here.
Posted by: TheQueen | January 30, 2021 at 03:22 PM