So legendary presidential-inaugural parade announcer Charlie Brotman tells Inside the Beltway in advance of announcing his 14th presidential inauguration parade for "my 10th new president - a period of 52 years. It's a good thing I started when I was 3, or I would be old."
Actually, Mr. Brotman was 28 in 1957 when he announced to re-elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower what band was next marching up Pennsylvania Avenue before the presidential reviewing stand - and now marches up before the nation's first black president.
"I think this could be the most meaningful and the most exciting inaugural we've ever had," Mr. Brotman agreed. "It appears to me that from everything I've heard, seen and read, our new leader Barack Obama is creating the America every American wants it to be."
NOTHING MAGIC
The National Black Republican Association is calling on President-elect Barack Obama, on behalf of his fellow black Americans, to demand an apology from the Los Angeles Times and opinion writer David Ehrenstein "for denigrating you as a 'Magic Negro' in an article entitled 'Obama the 'Magic Negro.'"
The article, which appeared in March 2007, was subtitled: "The Illinois senator lends himself to white America's idealized, less-than-real black man."
BARGAIN SHOPPER
Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, pushed a bill last year successfully preventing Uncle Sam from refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the cost of oil came down.
That time has now come - for how long, nobody knows - so Mr. Markey in recent days requested the Department of Energy go ahead and purchase about 12 million barrels of crude oil.