An All-Pennsylvania Superbowl – And Inaugural Memories
To the NFL: Scrub the Super Bowl in Tampa. When the Eagles and Steelers win, let the two teams and millions of fans converge on Happy Valley and have the two team duke it out on Paterno’s turf. Imagine: A Super Bowl in real football weather!
The coming Inaugural brings back great memories of Inaugurals I have covered.
January 20, 1977. Jimmy Carter is sworn in on the east front of the Capitol. The West front, which will be used on Tuesday, was under construction. I sat just below the 39th President, young and eager to lead, as he promised a bright future. His time in office never quite matched his hopes. The hostage crisis destroyed his Presidency, along with many moments of indecision.
January 20, 1985. It was so cold that the second Reagan Inaugural had to be brought inside. Reagan was on a roll, and he would have been elected again, except for the Constitution.
January 20, 1989. George H.W. Bush offers little new in his Inaugural address but promises a kinder, gentler nation. We didn’t get it, but we did send 25,000 troops in to arrest one man in Panama, and Desert Storm was successful to everyone but the President’s son George W. and Dick Cheney who wanted to finish the job after 9/11.
January 20, 1993 -Bill Clinton offers a rambling speech promising health care for all – a project that was botched the following year. There was no sighting of Monica Lewinsky im the crowd – yet.
January 20, 2001. Freezing rain is falling on my camera platform, George W. Bush is sworn in with great fanfare, and makes little mention of a threat of terror. He DOES talk about tax cuts. Bush delivers on the tax cuts. fights a tough war against the Taliban and Bin Laden, and then blows it by heading into Iraq. He leaves office with a 22 percent approval rating.
Comments(22)
First, thank you for changing the blog topic… I think. Hopefully this will be a very short lived blog. After tomorrow’s game and the inauguration on Monday, hopefully you’ll be a bit more inspired.
We miss you, Larry, come back to us.
Larry, I know you are torn on Jimmy Carter but let’s not forget he is the worst President since Herbert Hoover. He was in office for a huge recession for which he had no answer. He blundered in paralysis by analysid in the Iran hostage situation. He spent all his political bullets trying to solve the Middle East Crisis between the Arabs and Jews. He was a joke and remains a thorn in the side of every President since.
BTW, does anyone else think that Big Ben is overrated and hyped much in the way McNabb use to be? It sickens me the way the press cannonizes BR everytime he wins. Put him in Detroit or St Louis and he’d be exposed. Let’s hope Johnson gets a shot at him with his blitz packages in 2 weeks and he’s exposed the way the Patriots did it every year in the playoffs.
Eagles Steelers at Beaver Stadium – that would be Pennsylvania Football Heaven – too bad it’s just a pipedream. But for a guy who got to hang out with the Beatles, sometimes dreams do come true. If the Football Gods smile on us today, we’ll get the Eagles and the Steelers in the SUPER BOWL – with Springsteen at intermission. That wouldn’t be too bad.
“talk about a dream, Try to make it real…”
Here’s a pregame bet. I bet more people from Philadelphia have been to Phoenix than have visited the city of Pittsburgh.
BTW Larry I’m pretty superstitious and any talk of having the Super Bowl in Happy Valley is a bit premature.
I’m puzzled. Why mention the first inauguration only of two of the three two-term presidents you mention and the second inauguration only of one of them?
These are incredibly insightful memories of inaugurations. I never would have remembered that it was so cold in 1985.
Next.
But, despite being young and eager to lead, you never did get that chance, did you? The promise of youth was squandered. You might still fulfill your potential, but it would required some great policy achievement, such as bringing FREE AIR to the masses.
Ed, Larry is struggling to find topics when topics abound. I’m with you on the jinxing.
Larry is also showing his extreme parochial perspective. Eagles-Steelers in Happy Valley…
I bet Larry hasn’t been to Phoenix. In fact I doubt been out of the state of PA since the last inauguration.
Larry has jinxed the Eagles.
The press really needs to stop the over emphasis on race at the inaguration. Yes its MLK weekend and it’s the first half black president, but making so much of it has begun to cheapen the fact that Obama is just a great man with a bright future. Enough with the racial obsession in the press. It’s all just going to backlash when he makes the inevidible 1st year missteps. The bar is so high no man could ever live up to what’s expected of him. He may end up being like Donovan McNabb. We finally got black quaterbacks in the NFL, but now they have to perform as well as white ones- its not easy in the NFL nor in the presidency.
This makes me throw up in my mouth.
Reid gone.
Gruden in.
McNabb gone.
Garcia in.
LARRY JINXED THE EAGLES!
LARRY JINXED THE EAGLES!
LAARY JINXED THE EAGLES!
HAPPY VALLEY MY BUTT…
What do you expect from birds that have to fly on a road?
Birds of a feather flock together.
As we inaugurate our 44th President let us be thankful we live in a country where we have a peaceful transfer of power even though 45% of the population disagrees with the choice. That we have a virtually seamless transition. That not one gunshot is fired or one demonstrator beaten. We can all be thankful for that…
we are heartbroken that the eagles lost.We offer our sincere condolences to all philadelphia fans,you are the most knowlegeable fans in the world, the most loyal and you deserve a winner.
As for tuesday,I unplugged the. tv and am turning off the computer.
You all better get your butts out there and do a day of service for me! It’s going to be really different now that we have a black president. Everyday will be a day of service and attonement, especially for white people. Get your guilty skinny white asses out there and clean up our neighborhoods and paint our schools- now!
Happy MLK DAY, and thanks Philadelphia for creating the Day of Service many years ago, it was a great idea and has finally gone national!!!
Your local FB team down the street
Is trying hard to forget this song
To serenade the Cardinals
Just laid down on the Glendale lawn
Another Unpleasant Unhappy Valley Sunday
Charcoal burnin everywhere
Years of endings that are all the same
And no one seems to care
See Mike Tomlin he’s proud today
Because his charges made the grade
And Whisenhut he’s so serene
He’s got a team left in the parade
Another Unpleasant Unhappy Valley Sunday
Here it’s played out and status quo
Fans complain about how disappointing they’ve been
And the team just doesn’t understand
Another Unpleasant Unhappy Valley Sunday
Another Unpleasant Unhappy Valley Sunday
Another Unpleasant Unhappy Valley Sunday
Another Unpleasant Unhappy Valley Sunday
Peter Tork-You should’ve taken the advice in posting number 16.Talk about too much free time.Hard to believe Neil Young played with you guys.
My husband had a choice of either job and he chose VP for me, its better for our family. Also, my husband Joe is not the only one who can stir the pot with shocking statements. I do it all the time, and as second lady I’m going to make some zingers. We Wilmington girls dont get out much and I’m ready to dish to the nation. Anyone notice how hot I was on Oprah? Middle aged men are going to be spanking their monkey’s to me everytime I go on TV, and don’t forget the tissue box, you will need it for something other than tears next time you see me! Desperate Housewives of Wilminton Delaware unite, we’ve got it going on….
Jill you’re a fox from the Monkees’ generation. How did you get tied down with a fossil like Joe Biden? Way to set off the press with your Secretary of State comment. You are a loose cannon like Scranton Joe.
Yankee Pirate you’re not bringing any consciousness to this website. You are more like a commentator.
Hey Hey We’re the Monkees
Jill you wanna monkee around?
BTW, Larry, don’t think we weren’t all very impressed by your use of the word “invective” in your mini-rant above… Is that your choice of words or did you just see that on the teleprompter?