Inauguration Announcer Been at Mic Since Ike

Lincoln provided the Bible, but Obama must turn to others for verse ideas

(NEWSER) - As Barack Obama prepares to take the oath of office Tuesday with his hand on the Lincoln Bible, the Wall Street Journal offers a sample of the Bibles other presidents have chosen—and the passages they've chosen to open them to. Eisenhower, Carter, and Bush Sr. took their oaths on George Washington's Masonic Bible. Ironically, it's a copy Washington hastily borrowed and opened at random. More»

'Nobody has ever worried about where to put 10,000 buses before,' says Obama planner

(NEWSER) - The inauguration of Barack Obama will be a historic occasion, but some involved have other things on their minds, USA Today reports. “Nobody has ever worried about where to put 10,000 buses before,” said Peter Gage, an aide charged with planning the Jan. 20 Inaugural Parade. Some 13,000 will march, 3 million could attend, and tight security measures will be in effect. More»

Web audience sends numbers skyrocketing

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama's inauguration was the most-watched ever but it failed to set a TV ratings record, USA Today reports. Neilsen estimates 37.8 million television viewers tuned in for the ceremony, while 41.8 million watched Ronald Reagan's 1981 inauguration. But internet viewership broke records and sent figures through the roof. Some 26.9 million watched online streaming on CNN and 9.1 million on MSNBC's site, according to the networks. More»

Writer savors the spirit of goodwill amid throng at inauguration

(NEWSER) - The lines were "the longest I have ever stood in," and the day was arctic, but there were no complaints to be heard from the jubilant throng in Washington yesterday, Garrison Keillor writes in Salon. "All kinds of people, the slim and sleek, the XXXLs, the heavily insulated, the carefree" slowly trekked toward the Capitol for the swearing-in of a new leader and the emergence of "a new America," Keillor writes—all radiating goodwill and a sense of the enormity of the occasion. "I simply was grateful to be among it." More»

(AP) - Barack Obama's motorcade is on its way to the White House, heading a parade that pays homage to pioneers who paved the way for the nation's first black president. Re-enactors of a black Civil War regiment, World War II's surviving Tuskegee Airmen, and Freedom Riders who battled for civil rights are assembled to follow Obama's limousine on its way down Pennsylvania Avenue. More»