Actually, Lowell, I was thrilled to see this short video clip of the beginning of what promises to be an orderly transition of leadership and transfer of power, and I had to smile at the obvious contrasting differences between the current "first family" and the incoming one...

Thanks!

Steve  

What a nice looking couple!  I mean the Obamas...  I can't wait for the new first family to move in.  I plan to actually cross the river again, just to visit, walk around on the National Mall, cross the street to snap some pictures of the White House, and maybe spend some money.  Haven't done that in eight years.

Elsewhere in the Bush administration, aides are probably furiously trying to shred documents and erase emails proving the extent to which this government had been violating the law and the Constitution for the last seven years.

A famous conservative once said, "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice."

Well, simple, common decency in defense of one's legacy is no virtue.  

the ironclad rules of the dress code for big dogs is in operation, and our former outsider has the rules down pat. You're right, the contrast otherwise was... interesting. In a store today I overheard two nicely dressed middle-aged-plus white ladies lamenting the new first family; they simply did not want them as America's face to the world, holding forth in the White House  and discussed how history would, in, say, 40 years, justify Bush's presidency and prove him correct in every respect. On the other hand, yesterday I heard a much younger white woman saying how delighted she was to see such a fine young family in the White House, with those two beautiful children and The Puppy. No matter how you cut it, the President is American royalty and we are all personally interested in our royals.

I guess this is more proof that death is the source of all progress: the first two ladies will eventually pass on, and the younger woman will be the norm.  

I mean the last sentence. Just think, if it weren't for the inevitable change, we would still be putting up with the Puritans and a lot of other people who make the world a better place by going elsewhere.

Now, if those Puritans would just stop reincarnating....