Everyone rooting for President Obama to enact his agenda into law should get to know the following two names: Senator Olympia Snowe and Senator Susan Collins. These two women are going to be the most important Republicans in Washington for the next two years. Because they're going to be first on the Democrats' speed dial, whenever there is an important bill coming up in the Senate.

Collins and Snowe both hail from Maine, and are the last two of a dying breed -- fiscally-conservative (but non-ideological) moderate New England Republicans. An age ago, they would have been considered middle-of-the-road Moderate Republicans. Since the GOP's lurch to the right, they are now seen as Flaming Liberal Republicans by the party's hardcore base.

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"It was a the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Too trite? How about: "We must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America" (from Obama himself)? Maybe that's pretentious of me. OK, I've got it, let's use one last cowboy metaphor as a final nod to the Bush years: Inauguration Day, 2009 had the good, the bad and the ugly.

Here's a quick photo summary:

The good

The swearing-in ceremony itself, and the opening acts which proceeded it were the best thing, capped by Barack Obama's oath of office.

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[Note: This page is nothing but my photos of the Inauguration and our trip to see it. For those with slow connections or slow browsers, be warned it may take a while to load. Part 5 of the Inauguration story will be posted later today. Thank you for your patience.]

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This column really should have a subtitle to it: "Part 4 of Chris' Adventures At The Inauguration." I have been reporting my experiences of attending the Inauguration in a series of articles this week, and since I am going to devote the talking points to the best, most memorable lines of President Obama's Inaugural speech, this really should be part of this series.

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[Note: Part 1 and Part 2 ran in a separate article earlier.]

It has been pointed out to me by a commenter to Part 2 of this report that I was being unduly critical of the sound guys, as HBO was the one to screw up both the video/sound sync and the dead microphone for the opening lines to our National Anthem. I concede the point. But the sound had other problems throughout the day as well, so you be the judge.

I left off with the opening of the show, at 10:00 A.M. For approximately the next hour, after the kids' choruses did a great job with their part of the show, the U.S. Marine Corps Band played what I would term "processional music" as the VIPs were seated. First came the garden-variety VIPs, such as Hollywood celebrities (for those making bets with Irish bookies, Dustin Hoffman was the first one we saw). Next, the lower echelons of Washington insiders, and then (in increasing importance, in one of those steeped-in-protocol arcane hierarchies) more and more prominent politicians, past and present. This culminated in the real bigwigs, but I'll get to that in a moment.

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[Update: Second installment of this article has now been added, below.]

Barack Hussein Obama's oath of office was indeed inspiring to hear, if a bit flawed in the execution. Both he and the Chief Justice seemed to have an attack of nerves, and they both wound up blowing their lines. For me, though, the entire ceremony -- and the handling of the crowds who braved the cold to see it -- was also inspiring, if a bit flawed. So if you're looking for some poetic description full of lofty praise of the experience, bowdlerized to remove any warts, then I suggest you look elsewhere. You have been forewarned.

As I was writing this account, the news broke that Obama did actually re-swear the oath (with the 35 words in the correct order, one assumes), meaning that the right-wing crank brigade can no longer gnash their teeth about how Obama somehow isn't legally president due to the muffing of the oath. Whew! Constitutional crisis averted!

But I am getting ahead of myself here. I should begin at the beginning. And the beginning, for me (as well as for hundreds of thousands of others) was walking out of the house at around 3:45 in the morning. The first thing I noticed (being a current California resident) was the fact that it was around 15 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit (for our readers living outside America, this is approximately -7 to -10 degrees Centigrade). By any scale, it was cold. Really cold. Bitter, bitter cold. More on this later.

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As usual, the first official recognition of our new president was a twenty-one gun salute. By field artillery.

Now, I have heard howitzer fire in Washington before. I heard a military band perform the "1812 Overture" -- properly, as it was originally written -- with cannons used as percussion. [Incidentally, this is something I highly recommend to any who have the chance to hear such a rare performance.]

In other words, I know what it sounds like. But the amazing thing to me is that the crowd was cheering so loudly after our 44th president was sworn in that it was all but impossible to hear the cannon fire. I do not exaggerate -- even though they ran it through the monstrously-loud sound system.

The crowd was so ecstatic in making a joyful noise that it almost completely drowned out electrically-amplified artillery fire.

That summed up the day, for me, more poignantly than anything else.

May Barack Obama continue to overwhelm America in just such a fashion, for years to come.

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Just back from our dry run down on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The atmosphere is electric. The scene is one of thousands upon thousands of people aimlessly milling about, waiting for tomorrow to come. We've all been desperately waiting for this particular tomorrow to come for a long time, and now that it's almost here the celebratory joy is palpable.

I have to apologize if this post is a bit disjointed, as it is closer to a stream-of-consciousness blog than I am used to writing. Can we spend all day on our feet and then come home and write it all down for you to read? Yes we can!

So while it won't be as focused and polished as usual, here are my initial impressions after spending the day scoping out the preparations for the big day tomorrow.

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Day One (Sunday, 1/18/09)

I start my day in sunny California, where we have had a recent warm spell. Yesterday the temperature hit 80 degrees, we had the windows open, and I walked outside wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

So began my journey to the frozen tundra of Washington, D.C.

Driving to the airport was uneventful, as was the first plane ride, to catch our connection in Las Vegas. Late in the afternoon in Sin City, we make our connection. People here in the desert are dressed in T-shirts and sandals, as am I. I know, having grown up near Washington, that I am going to pay for this later in the day.

As we board our plane for Baltimore, I notice the prevalence of Obama shirts and hats has increased. The bad news is that as we board, the football score is Pittsburgh 6, Baltimore 0.

We have apparently gotten a plane staffed with standup comedy wannabes. The slap-happy jokes will continue until we exit the plane, but even this is bearable, since at the beginning of the flight (every seat filled) the stewardess asks who is going to the Inauguration. Every single hand goes up. We are among friends.

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[Note: This column is a repeat. I ran it last year, but unfortunately it was the day before Thanksgiving and I felt it didn't get the attention it deserves. As the Inauguration Week of President Barack Obama kicks off this Martin Luther King Day, I thought it was most appropriate to run it again, for those who may have missed it earlier. My blogging from the Inauguration will begin later today and continue intermittently for the next three days, but I wanted to kick it off with the following.]

For only the third time in this column's two-and-a-half year history (see note below), I am turning over my soapbox to a guest columnist. As with both previous times, the author is a commenter here at Huffington Post.

Known as "LewDan," he took exception to a column I wrote, and let me know how he felt in the comments, and later through a private email exchange. While he wasn't exactly agreeing with what I had written, I found him to have a unique perspective on the issue of race in Obama's election and also found him to be an original and well-reasoned thinker. While we disagreed on some things, we did so respectfully and with the intent of making our positions clear to each other.

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