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What Today Means

Pundits take on magnitude of the moment

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Jan 20, 2009 10:52 AM CST
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(Newser) – Barack Obama is the story today for editorial pages across the country. Here’s what the professional pundits are saying:  

  • The excitement is feverish in Washington, writes Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian, a sense that this inauguration is special, that Obama will be magically transformed into “the embodiment of the most powerful nation on earth.”
  • Obama’s rise is emblematic of the changes taking place in America, writes Conor Dougherty in the Wall Street Journal, particularly its growing diversity.

  • The Los Angeles Times reminds the press to remain vigilant, even as it celebrates the new president. Obama “will sometimes fall short of his rhetoric,” it cautions. “We're braced for that, as the nation should be.”
  • The crash of US Airways Flight 1549 is the perfect metaphor for Obama’s task, writes Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post. Like its heroic pilot, Obama must calmly guide this crashing plane to safety.

Customers arrive in front of the office of the weekly newspaper Amsterdam News in Harlem to buy the latest edition celebrating President Barack Obama's victory, Nov. 7, 2008.
Customers arrive in front of the office of the weekly newspaper Amsterdam News in Harlem to buy the latest edition celebrating President Barack Obama's victory, Nov. 7, 2008.   (AP Photo/David Karp)
A vendor puts on display the magazines featuring President-elect Barack Obama in Bangalore, India, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009.
A vendor puts on display the magazines featuring President-elect Barack Obama in Bangalore, India, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009.   (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
A delegate looks at the cover of Time magazine, featuring Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Aug. 25, 2008.
A delegate looks at the cover of Time magazine, featuring Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Aug. 25, 2008.   (AP Photo)
President-elect Barack Obama speaks at the Lincoln Memorial during an inaugural concert in Washington on Sunday.
President-elect Barack Obama speaks at the Lincoln Memorial during an inaugural concert in Washington on Sunday.   (AP Photo)
Sean Scott of Bridgeport, Conn., waits on the National Mall in Washington today for the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama.
Sean Scott of Bridgeport, Conn., waits on the National Mall in Washington today for the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama.   (AP Photo)
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Washington DC, usually a city of strait-laced, sober-suited types has acquired the atmosphere of a child's bedroom in the first hours of Christmas morning. - Jonathan Freedland

He must demonstrate competence and professionalism, qualities so rare in public life that those who possess them are — like that pilot — widely described as "heroic." - Anne Applebaum

As Americans and people around the world invest their optimism and hope in his success, we pledge to watch him, to hold him to his work, and to report back. - The Los Angeles Times

The child of a black Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, Mr. Obama represents the blurring of racial edges that will be part of the American future. - Conor Dougherty

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