Inaugural Seating Map

The scramble is on for Obama inauguration tickets. Three of my friends and I are trying to get tickets for the swearing in ceremony on January 20th. We've all made our official requests; but, my friend Elisa out in Washington State is the only one to have someone from her Congressperon's office even respond.

For the 240,000 tickets available, the ticket requests coming through Congressional offices are off the charts. As of Sunday US Senator from Virgina Jim Webb had received 26,000 requests alone. The National Park service says that the last time a one million+ crowd descended on Washington for an inauguration was the 1965 inaugural of Lyndon B Johnson. Obama's inauguration could easily top that, in my opinion. Everyone wants to be there to witness history (and watch Bush finally move out of the White House).

At this point, we think Elisa's the best hope at this point since we figure fewer folks from Washington State will make the cross-country trip. The other three of us who live in Philly, DC, and Chicago respectively think our odds of scoring tickets are slimmer than a Bush third term since we all live in high demand areas. But, we're keeping our fingers crossed that we'll get lucky.

In the meantime, I saw a new seating plan for the 1 million+ folks expected to descend on DC for the inauguration:

Obama Wins!!!!

No Game Changer

McCain needed a knock out punch during the debate tonight just to get back in the game and he didn't get it. According to a CNN focus group who watched the debate live, while McCain won the first 30 minutes, he lost the last hour as he got testier and testier (his temperament has long been a stumbling block for him). There in lies one of McCain's fundamental problems--he's just not likable. A CNN post-debate telephone poll with viewers who watch the debate rated McCain's likability as only 22%. And this is big trouble for McCain who trails in the polls in a number of key states. Not only isn't he likable, the average voter just isn't connecting with him.

The average voter just can't connect with a man who has 7+ houses (actually doesn't know how many he has) and at least as many cars. McCain hasn't spent a day in his life wondering how to pay his many mortgages; worrying about how he's going to pay a hospital bill if he get's sick (he's been covered by Federal health insurance for most of his adult life--first in the Navy and later as a 20 year veteran of Congress); wondering if he should pay the electric bill, water bill or phone bill this month; or how he's going to pay for his childrens' education.

McCain's biggest problem is he's out of touch and he did nothing tonight to portray himself otherwise. We've got 19 days until the election and a lot can happen in that time. But, for the moment, I'm cautiously optimistic.