Lisa Ling's Inauguration Blog

10:02 p.m. Tuesday, January 20, 2009
I truly didn't want this day to end. Our country is in the midst of colossal challenges, but on this day, we celebrated and rejoiced in our collective promise to do better. We looked beyond our differences, and we saw the best in each other and in humanity.

It was a glorious moment at the Home States Ball when the President and First Lady walked in. He addressed his fellow Hawaiians and Chicagoans with an "Aloha" and "What's up." It was a funny and endearing moment. He is such a seemingly accessible, but distinguished and dignified, Commander in Chief.

Expectations of President Obama are enormous—he is not a God. But people of the world have been yearning for leadership: someone who inspires hope and appeals to our innate goodness. We got a good one today.

 I hope in my core that this momentum continues on beyond this day. Let us carry the feeling that we had today into tomorrow and into the next and the next.

— Lisa




Pictured: Lisa and her husband with Iraq war veteran and director of the Illinois Dept. of Veterans' Affairs Tammy Duckworth and her husband, Maj. Bryan Bowlsbey, a fellow National Guardsman who learned last month that he's being called up for deployment.