AH, THE MOMENT THEY FIRST BEGAN TO REALIZE THEY'D BOUGHT A PIG IN A POKE:

What's New Is Old Again: Obama's inauguration speech went for prose instead of poetry. (John Dickerson, Jan. 19, 2010, Slate)

President Obama marks his one-year anniversary in office on Wednesday. As part of Slate's coverage, John Dickerson analyzed the inaugural address. Dickerson's report, first published a few hours after Obama's speech ended, is reprinted below.

It was a good speech but not a soaring one. This may have been because Obama has given so many strong speeches, he's graded on his own special curve—or because he wanted the speech to be thoroughly conventional.

Of course, back then they could still imagine that he was only trying to be conventional and uninspiring.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 19, 2010 7:37 PM