Live from Washington - our man in the crowd

Entering my 3rd hour of standing in line to get into the ticketed zone, which is also standing. What a mess. A friend just peed into a water bottle. Don't think we'll want to include that in the first draft of history. The crowds are matching the hype. Before this there were massive crowds on the metro, with multi-hour lines to get onto the Washington mall (which was full from the Capital to the Washington Monument by 10am) and to enter the ticketed area closer to the Capital. People really are rising to the occasion and are being incredibly patient and even polite in line. I was a bit disappointed by the quality of the singing - sporadic and lacking in enthusiasm - but then I did have the stand next to man urinating in a bottle, so i can't complain.

I'm inside "blue ticket" area now, listening to the Marine band play the collected works of John PhillipsSousa or whatever the kids are listening to these days, while ex-presidents are introduced and shown on the jumbo-tron. Looking forward to the reaction to Dubya. I haven't been asked, but if I were advising (still) President Bush, I'd have him walk out with someone  held in better esteem, like Nelson Mandela.