I know no one reads my blog, nor is anyone in need of yet another reaction to today's inauguration ceremony. But today, right now, just for myself, I want to remember this focal moment in history.

I did a fair amount of yelling at the TV. I cursed Bush and Cheney each time they were shown.

Obama, rightfully, shamed them with these lines summarizing the failure of the Bush Presidency:

"As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake."

The cameras showed Bush then and I told him, "That's right, he just said FUCK YOU!" I was struck by the cathartic feeling that now, finally, Bush and his failed, imbecilic "leadership" will finally Just Go Away and I teared up a bit. And I thoroughly enjoyed the moment near the end, when Katie Couric corrected herself - "President Bush, er, Former President Bush."

But I was not completely overcome by negativity, no. I was warmed by Michelle Obama's crooked-toothed smile, and by the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery's smooth Alabama accent as he delivered his benediction. I was touched by the diverse faces in the crowd, and their numbers, and the unmistakable resonance of their presence on the same National Mall where another huge, impassioned crowd heard Dr. Martin Luther King speak of his dream for this day.

President Obama's last act before assuming office - stumbling through the oath of office itself - gave way to the latest of his forceful, direct and cogent communications. His message - that we have done much as a nation in the past to achieve greatness, and must do much again to regain it - came around, near its conclusion, to an acknowledgement of today's significance in history. His faltering performance of the oath was not so important as his observation after it, that "a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath."

I want to write it again: President Obama.