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My fellow Americans: we have a new President.
The honeymoon period is passing now - which is a good thing for all parties involved, I think - but I thought it might be worth looking back at the day Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, from a slightly different perspective. Being in the UK on inauguration day was a very interesting experience, actually. As much as I felt some twinges of jealousy of my friends back in the States that day - and particularly those in DC - it was very enlightening to observe the whole thing from this side of the Pond. Newspapers here had been featuring his picture and news about the ceremony and those who would be in attendance for days and even weeks in advance, and sometimes it was easy to forget that it wasn't a leader of the UK being celebrated. Because of the close relationship between the two nations, and because of the general animosity and apathy towards the outgoing US leader, this was very big news for everyone over here. In fact, Londoners in general (at least, those I know) seem a lot more 'in the know' about the details of the American political system than the average 'Joe sixpack' in the States. They understand the whole electoral college system very well, know a lot of the ins out and outs of the two parties, are familiar with the key people and offices, and generally seem better informed than most of the people in the country who should be more concerned about these sorts of things. Perhaps this has something to do with the self-selecting group of people with whom I spend most of my time, but in general, my British companions seem to be a very well-informed bunch on the subject of American politics.
The mood that day was quite high, as well. Perhaps not quite as high as the Americans I know here, many of whom were wearing red, white, and/or blue, possibly with Obama t-shirts and buttons, and most importantly were sporting rather huge smiles (we are talking about Americans abroad, remember, who are a far more liberal sub-group of American citizens in general... and, let's be honest, Obama had the highest approval rating of an incoming President of anyone that anyone can think of). Still, there was an excitement in the air. People were talking about it all day. I received congratulations and high-fives from people throughout the day, regardless of how well I knew them. And, in the words of one English friend I asked about his attitude towards the whole thing, 'The way I see it, we've got a new leader of the free world. That should be exciting for all of us.'
As part of that excitement, Madame Tussaud's even had a special deal for American citizens on inauguration day: free entry for US citizens to celebrate the new President Obama wax statue. Considering the fact that said institution is about a 2 minute walk down the street from the RAM, I ran over with a couple of other Americans and we ran through to take a picture. (Didn't stop to really see anything else - sort of entertaining place, but definitely not worth the high price of admission, I don't think). They had a huge screen with a projector working to broadcast the BBC's coverage of the inauguration ceremony, and a huge line of people waiting to stand behind the desk in the 'Oval Office' to take their picture with 'President Obama'. We did it from the side, instead. Interesting to be in such a commercialized version of the political celebration, though, as well as to be surrounded by US accents for part of the afternoon!
In Madame Tussaud'sIn terms of actual inauguration-watching, however, I ran back to the packed-to-capacity common room where the flatscreen TV was broadcasting BBC's coverage of the event. And their coverage was great, except for the commentary that talked over a lot of the MC's announcements about what was going on so we sat in a moment of silence not knowing what it was for, and had extremely irate student musicians yelling at the commentator when he kept speaking through the beginning of the 'Simple Gifts' performance, talking about how beautiful it was. (We'd know how beautiful it is if you'd just stop talking.) Students were everywhere in the room to watch the proceedings - on couches, over couches, on each other, standing in corners, on the floor, etc. To be sure, a lot of the people in the room were the Americans studying there (there are a few of us), but it was amazing to see how many students from elsewhere were glued to the TV, as well. With one notable exception. (Perhaps the most memorable moment of the day for me.) At one point, a student walked nonchalantly through the common room door, and then stopped and did a double-take at how many people were in the common room. He looked confused and slightly annoyed, then peered his head around the corner to see what we were all watching. Recoiling in disgust, he stood and faced all of us, and yelled, 'I am Russian. I do not care about this. We do not care about your country!', and then stomped out of the room. An interesting reminder that just because the Cold War is over, it doesn't mean that the old attitudes have ended with it for everyone.
For the most part, though, election time felt like being an American in London made one a celebrity. My amazingly well-informed, optimistic, excited non-American friends had so much goodwill towards now-President Obama and the change he represented. The glow's certainly gone now, but let's hope that the goodwill remains towards the country as a whole.
