-By Warner Todd Huston
Compared to 2009, turnout in Washington for Obama’s second inauguration was hundreds of thousands of attendees lower this time around. But in-person visitors wasn’t the only number that suffered. There were fewer viewers at home for the event, too.
According to Gallup only 38 percent of respondents watched Obama’s second inaugural with an additional 28 percent saying they kept up after the news coverage afterward. This compared to 2009’s numbers where 60 percent said they watched the inauguration and an additional 20 percent watched the post inaugural news coverage.
Gallup also found that fewer Americans still have “hope” for an Obama presidency. In 2009 62 percent felt “more hopeful” with their outlook upon Obama’s inauguration but this time he only garnered 37 percent in that category.
Gallup concludes that it “certainly would be understandable for Americans to be less excited about a president’s second inauguration,” but that as Obama takes on his second term the nation shows “many signs” that it has not fully recovered.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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