“Hundreds of people have started to arrive for the inaugural ball at the Four Seasons. The ball is sold out at $80/ticket. We’ve spoken with former Austin mayor Bruce Todd, Travis County Commissioner Ron Davis, and Austin activist Willie Mae Kirk, mother of President Obama’s nominee for Trade Secretary, Ron Kirk.
Commissioner Davis has an amazing story. His ancestors were slaves on a plantation in Travis County. He told us he never thought he would see an African-American elected president in his lifetime. His description of today- “awesome.”
At 8:30pm, a live feed from one of Washington’s DC’s inaugural balls will play on two large screens in the Four Seasons ballroom. The guests are eagerly anticipating that!”
We’re sending in photos in real time from our locations at Huston Tillotson, Carver, Eastside Baptist, Scholz’s and UT -as well as uploading AP photos when we get them.
Check out the photo coverage at our Inauguration Page at www.kxan.com …
If you love interactive news gathering, then you will love KXAN today. We have a live blog at our station website, our news crews will be tweeting all day long and we will be taping video blogs and uploading them to KXAN’s youtube site as well. As for me, I’ll be roving to and from various locations. There is a big watch party at Scholz’s, which I will be heading to now, and then the gala tonight at the Four Seasons. Keep it here as various reporters will be uploading blogs all day to give us their impressions of each location. I’d love to hear what you are thinking as you watch the inauguration as well… so post away!
Carla Castano and the rest of the KXAN newsroom are getting ready for a busy day.
“We’re heading to UT to see what students have to say about the election. Students are a demographic largely credited in getting Obama elected. We’re wondering are these students going to stay active in politics. We’re also wondering what it will take in the next four years to get Obama re-elected and what are Obama supporters afraid of? Also, hopefully we’ll find some McCain supports on campus and see what they are doing today.”
Her name is Ann Venneman and she was the first term Cabinet Secretary of Agriculture for Bush. That’s right, George H.W. Bush. According to Politico, Barack Obama’s vice presidential search team, led by Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, has raised Venneman’s name more than once in discussions. Apparently, she’s clashed with democrats and environmentalists, but according to the article:
Veneman, 59, has a biography that could be suited to Obama’s unifying message. A Republican raised on a California peach farm, she rose to become the nation’s first female agriculture secretary. In 2002 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was treated successfully. Today she serves as executive director of the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF.
Obama said no thanks to 80 million public dollars and decided he will go it alone. His justification? It’s not that he can make more through private donations, but that it’s a broken system rife with underhanded ploys.
Well, not really but she’s not conceding yet. Looks like Clinton is angling for a VP position but the question is…would Obama even consider it? I’m torn on this one. On one hand, this has been such a long process and she does have a good portion of the voters that together, they may have a good chance as clinching a victory. However, as a newbie to the White House (if he wins) I don’t know how well the Clintons would do with taking orders from Obamarama.
I’m not going to say I told you so because I think most of us assumed that John Edwards was waiting for just the right moment to throw his support behind the man he believes could name him second in command if he gets the nomination. In case you missed it, John Edwards officially endorsed Barack Obama this afternoon because, he says, Obama is willing to fight poverty.
On another note, Lou Dobbs made a couple of good points tonight. The democrats kept saying over and over they didn’t want a brokered convention and yet, that is exactly what is happening. They are allowing superdelegates to determine the candidate because neither Obama nor Hillary have the number of committed delegates needed to secure the nomination. Dobbs was saying the Democratic party is breaking some of its own rules while it strictly adhered to other rules that threw out the Florida and Michigan votes…states that could have taken this primary in a much different direction. What happens next is anybody’s guess but fine, I will say I told you so on this one.
Obama gave his famous race speech and its been all the news can talk about for days. Here is the latest analysis on that speech:
“Sixty-nine percent of voters who have heard or read about Obama’s speech say he did a good job addressing the issue of race relations, and 63 percent of voters following the events say they agree with Obama’s views on race relations. Seventy-one percent say he did a good job explaining his relationship with Wright.
When registered voters were asked if Obama would unite the country, however, 52 percent said yes — down from 67 percent last month.”
