Selected Excerpts from Spectator’s Presidential Inauguration Blog

Marcus Brauchli, CC ’83, Missed Obama in College But Gets His Full Dose Now as Washington Post Editor

Marcus Brauchli, CC ’83, never crossed paths with Barack Obama while they were members of the same Columbia graduating class. Obama transferred in while Brauchli spent a year away. Obama was studying up for his LSATs while Brauchli was scoping out jobs at the New York Times. Yet Brauchli is now Executive Editor of the Washington Post, leading a newspaper that covers his classmate extensively.

“He came in the third year, and I guess by then he decided that he was going to go to Harvard Law School and be a success in life. When I came back I was more focused on graduation as quickly as possible,” Brauchli said. “I was majoring in graduation.”

Obama entered Columbia with enviable transfer credits that allowed him to bypass parts of the Core Curriculum, Brauchli said, an honor many Columbians can only dream about during the lasts minutes of CC.
The task of the Washington Post’s Obama coverage, according to Brauchli, is twofold: to acknowledge his historic importance while closely monitoring his decisions and administration.

Brauchli came to Columbia for the journalism school—”I was perhaps not a good enough journalist to have done my due diligence and discovered that the journalism school is mainly for graduate students”—but found college in New York City to be the perfect place to hone his skills anyway. He first wrote for Spectator, going on to be a stringer for the New York Times in his senior year.

Obama recently paid a visit to the Washington Post newsroom where he met with editorial board members, reporters and editors to discuss big agenda items, his priorities, and the challenges he anticipated in his coming presidency—as well as his plans for coping with them. “He was, as ever, well-informed, thoughtful, and articulate on virtually any subject,” Brauchli said.

“One of our reporters did ask him what his favorite cartoon was because he did have two kids, and it was not surprising if you have kids: Spongebob Squarepants. Because if you have two kids, you’re going to be watching a lot of Spongebob Squarepants.”
—Alix Pianin

Former First Lady Flaunts her Stuff

Hundreds fixed their eyes on the JumboTron to watch President Barck Obama, CC ’83, be sworn into office. But some had other reasons to pay careful attention.

“Barbara Bush is looking fine,” CCSC Class of 2012 President Erik Kogut, CC ’12, said.
—Liza Weingarten

A Celebration for Most, but not for All

The excitement and energy that made its way through Low Library Plaza was undeniable. Yet not everyone found the day to be a cause for celebration.

“I was actually not an Obama supporter,” Gabriel Hall, CC’11, said. “As a Republican and Conservative, I find it difficult to grapple with today’s inauguration. Although, I’m not unhappy to see him as President. I appreciate that he is being bipartisan and admire him for that—he called McCain a ‘hero’ recently. Although he wasn’t my candidate of choice, I’m still here, braving the cold and skipping my classes to watch this.”
—Monica Varman

Riding Another Subway, With Obama’s Face

I have never stood in a defined line to buy a metro card before.
At the Tenleytown-AU Metro station in Washington, D.C. Monday, 18 hours before the scheduled inauguration of Barack Obama, I stood in line for almost ten minutes to buy a metro card.

The card I bought commemorates the occasion, with a black and white photo of the incoming president printed on the side opposite the “Escalator safety tips.” Even public transportation is capitalizing on the Obama frenzy that has engulfed this city.

More than one employee commented on the record numbers of people moving through the system today, and some locals were astounded.
“What? This is MetroCenter?” A local woman asked her husband as the train pulled into a packed central station close to downtown, “Why did we come here? I don’t want to get off here.”
—Shane Ferro

Barnard Watches Inauguration in James Room

Professor Elizabeth Castelli, chair of the Barnard religion department, was also pleased with Obama’s emphasis on the country working together to solve its problems. “I think it was the combination of his description of the situation now,” she said. “His insistence that everyone can be part of transforming that situation.” She also praised him for stressing that it is possible for the United States to maintain security without compromising its core ideals.

While Castelli was moved by Obama’s inaugural speech, she said she was “disappointed and heartbroken” over his selection of Reverend Rick Warren to give the invocation.

“[Warren has] shown himself to be homophobic and bigoted in a number of different ways,” she said. “[Obama’s] effort to reach out to evangelicals could have been served by a better choice.”
Castelli was not the only one who had a significant reaction to the other key players in the inauguration ceremony. Sukhu, who felt as though Obama’s inauguration was surreal, felt even more so after Aretha Franklin’s performance of “America (My Country ‘Tis Of Thee).” “The way she sang, the way she dressed ... in that hat, singing that way.”
­—Madina Toure

Hats Off to Barack Obama
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Next time you’re about to overlook that unassuming guy wearing a strange hat in the library, think again.

“He wore this funny-looking hat,” David Peng, CC ’83, said, of President Barack Obama, CC ’83, during a post-inauguration reception at University President Lee Bollinger’s house. “I remember seeing him in the library. And we may have taken a class on Marxism together, but I’m not really sure,” he added, also referring to Obama’s aloof nature during his college days.

Yet his remoteness may have been part of a crucial transitional period in his life, as classmate Marvis Fowler-Williams, SEAS ’83 and Law ’87, explained. “Columbia has a different type of student,” Fowler-Williams said. “At Columbia, you’re on your own—there’s no one holding your hand for you. You have to develop on your own, which was perfect for Obama. He needed to be here.”
—Kim Kirschenbaum