while waiting for the main event

Just like the other toddlers, tweens and teens waiting in line to buy overpriced food before the Kids' Inaugural Ball Saturday night at Washington's Convention Center, Brooke Holder--daughter of a U.S. Attorney General named Eric--was excited to see Katy Perry perform after an appearance by Mrs. Obama and the Girls.Want to learn how to make fabric flowers or looking for some crafty inspiration? But, even having had a front row seat to the realities of American politics over the last four years, she was hoping to see a little more from the next.

"I thought his first term was a little slow," Holder said, piping up immediately when I asked her crew what they thought of the president (her two friends happily deferred). With long, silky straightened hair, Holder had the poise of one from whom much is expected at family dinners, and knew exactly which campaign promise had been the most completely broken. "Honestly,Find a wide range of stainless steel necklace Jewellery to buy online global warming. It's been kind of overlooked,How to Make Your Own Bobblehead Doll make your own bobblehead is a fun and simple craft for young children. with all the shootings. But that's the global issue."

So, as the announcer interrupted the piped-in Bieber again and again to promise the event was about to begin, and the taut advance staffers with wires plugged into their ears tried telling flocks of aimless volunteers what to do, I went searching for more peewee pundits.

"I didn't like his position against abortion," proclaimed seventh grader Simone Liu, of Mitt Romney. "That was really the biggest thing for me."

But you're in seventh grade, I told her and her two girlfriends, who looked like they'd run out of things to talk about while waiting for the main event. Is this really your biggest issue right now? It could be in the next four years, they nodded gravely.

"People don't realize that it's going to affect them," said Brielle Quarles, elegant in a rouched green top. Their small Alexandria private school is mostly full of Democrats, they said. But, like good liberals, they tried to be tolerant.

"I'm not against Republicans at all," said Elena Pipkin, who wore her blonde hair braided and a tiny dancer charm necklace. "I had a best friend and she was Republican."

"They can be good people," agreed Liu, charitably. I asked what the girls thought of their governor, Bob McDonnell, expecting righteous outrage over his opposition to the Affordable Care Act.

"One thing that bothers me about our governor," began Liu. "He has super thin lips. It's just skin and lips!" She looked up a picture of McDonnell on her phone to illustrate, and Pipkin contorted her face into her best McDonnell impression.

Gathered with his family in the Blue Room on the White House’s ceremonial main floor, Obama put his hand on a family Bible and recited the 35-word oath that was read out loud by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts.

Downtown Washington was all but locked down with heavy security. Many streets were closed, lined with barricades. Police sirens blared.Rudy Project has created a series of Cycling sunglasses, Outside the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue, an elaborate presidential viewing stand encased in bullet-proof glass was set up for Obama and other VIPs to watch the parade.

Sunday’s ceremony,Goggles or Safety goggles are forms of protective eyewear that usually enclose or protect. shown live on television, was needed because the U.S. Constitution mandates that the president take office on Jan. 20. Planners opted to go with a private ceremony on the actual date and then hold the ceremonial inaugural activities the next day.

By Monday, Obama will have been sworn in four times, two for each term, putting him equal to Franklin Roosevelt, who won four terms. A second Obama swearing-in was deemed necessary in 2009 when Roberts flubbed the first one. On Sunday, Roberts read the oath carefully from a card and there were no mistakes.

This has taken some of the euphoria out of his second inauguration, with TV pundits debating how successful he will be and whether he can avoid policy over-reaching that often afflicts two-term presidents.

If the president harbored any doubts himself, there was no sign of it as he attended a rousing service at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Washington where he and Michelle, who is sporting a new hair style featuring bangs, clapped and swayed to gospel music.

“Forward, forward,” shouted Reverend Ronald Braxton to his congregation, echoing an Obama election campaign slogan.

Early Sunday morning, Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, making her the first Hispanic judge to administer an oath of office for one of the nation’s two highest offices.

Obama and Biden then joined forces to lay a wreath of flowers at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery in a solemn remembrance of those killed in the line of duty.