Jennifer good morning, everyone. Welcome to currents coverage of the inauguration of president barack obama. Im Jennifer Granholm joined in new york by John Fuglesang, host of viewpoint. Good morning. Jennifer current political analyst Michael Shure is joining us from portland, oregon, of all places. Well also have bill press and David Shuster reporting for us from washington, d. C. Theyre on the ground and also have today current contributor Michael Hastings, the author of panic 2012, the sublime and terrifying story of obamas campaign. Well talk about that a little bit as well. So excited you guys. This is the best of what america has to offer in terms of pomp and circumstance and marking a point in history. Do you not agree . Do you love this . John i couldnt agree more. It is a pleasure to be here as a contributor to this network which has spent so much time covering this campaign but also of history. I love Inauguration Day because it really it is the one day that brings the past and future completely together. Were following the most contentious, most expensive president ial campaign in history. And theres so much to talk about in terms of the past and what brought us to this day and all of the different people both for and against the president who led to this moment. As well as the question marks of what the next four years represent. And how will the second term be different. How will the president himself be different in his demeanor and approach. I cant think of any greater honor than to be spending this day with the person who gave the greatest speech at the Democratic National convention. Jennifer stop it. The last president gave a really good speech. There is a cameo of the governor in the book, panic 2012 jennifer here, i gotta show you. It is in ebook. Were working on getting paperback copies out. They spent hours watching it over again and reciting the lines. Huge fan. Honor to be here. Jennifer anyway, so the great thing about this is were going to be bringing you on the ongoing coverage. Well be showing it behind us at many points of this morning. Already this morning, we have had the University Choir singing from tennessee at the invitation of senator lamar alexander. Right now playing is the United States marine band often known as the president s band because they are performing constantly at events at the white house. And they are magnificent, might i say. John indeed. Im a big fan of the harmonica. Jennifer the harmonica . John every kid gets a marine band harmonica as a kid. Jennifer who knew. Great thing about the marine band is i can tell you, governor every year, the president has a state dinner, of course, where he invites the governors to come. It is inside of the white house. You sit at these ten top tables. The marine band comes at one point in the dinner, comes through the room, parking in between standing in between the tables and playing masterpieces of american obviously history, patriotic tunes. It is completely goosebump inspiring. Theyre magnificent. John it is a parth of the pomp i really like it. Is easy to poohpooh it and say it is too much ceremony. This is where what we have been and will be comes together in a confluence of events. For all of the celebration, it is a great time for criticism of policy, celebration of victory and really, you know, i like the patriotism of the event. I think that its really you know, itss chance to show by having the marine band playing for its twotime elected democratic president , to say nothing of the first africanamerican president , it brings together all of the best about this country. Jennifer you can see where theyre playing from. They just had a shot of actually actually from inside the view of a tuba. They had a shot of them, theyre up on the platform which is elevated, right. Overlooking the mall. So it is a beautiful spot for them to be. Right above them is where the president will take the oath. Thats where all of the elected officials are seated, where theyre seated as well. Marine band will be playing for quite awhile here. Almost an hour of the lead up to the inauguration. It is an aaron sorkin kind of day. West wing kind of day. A day where ritual and politics becomes an important part of keeping the democratic tradition alive. As someone who sometimes sat on the cynical side of things. Clearly, it is a representation of the imperial presidency. Jennifer were seeing dick durbin walking right now into the steps, as hes going up, he was obviously a lead player in so much of the putting together of today as well as Chuck Schumer. Let me bring in quickly David Shuster who is on the ground in washington, d. C. David, where are you perched . Governor granholm, were at 7th and madison. Im personally thrilled to hear that the marine corps band has been the start of our coverage as opposed to beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and james taylor. Were going to hear from them as well but youre right, the marine corps band goes back to 1790s, back to the time of George Washington. Part of the official sort of vibe that were going to hear this morning. Were at 7th and madison, about seven blocks from the reviewing stand, from the area where president obama and the dignitaries are 1500 dignitaries will be seated around president obama. What theyve done is because of security, theyve pushed the median a lot of folks are further back. They divide the mall into sections. It requires a certain level of security to get up close. A little less security to be further back where we are. Based on the crowds that were seeing and we should keep in mind it is about 40, 42 degrees, not a bad day here in washington. Were probably expecting about 800,000 or 900,000 people. It will not be jammed the way it was for four years ago for president obamas inaugural when there were about 1. 8 million. I can tell you having been down here four years ago, the crowd here is nothing compared to what it was then. Theres still very much of a festive atmosphere. A lot of people who are happy to be witnessing history, to be seeing their president inaugurated for the second time. Jennifer you are in a great spot because you get the reverse look of what the president is seeing. So we get to see it from both ends of the mall. I can tell you from somebody who was there at the other side of that last time, the sea of people from that Vantage Point perched up high was amazing. And it looks like behind you, there is actually a good number that have gathered. 1. 9 million last time and maybe a little bit less than half of that expected. Any time you get close to a million, youve got a lot of folks. Yeah. You know it is close to a million here we are seven blocks away. It is a sea of people for the seven blocks going to the capitol. Four years ago, it was all the way back to the lincoln memorial, it was packed with people. Governor granholm, you remember from four years ago, in order for everybody on the mall who face it, i mean as far as the natural unless you have binoculars from here, you cant see whats going on on the west wing of the capitol. Every block or so, they have the giant judge bow ton jumbotrons so everyone only has to look about a block to see the giant screen so they can both see and hear whats going on. Jennifer only about 35 degrees. I dont see much condensed air coming out of your mouth so it must be a little bit warm. Is it . Yeah. The sun is out. It is probably closer to 40 degrees. I took the jacket off when i walked over here to get through the security because it was nice. It is going to be nice. Theyre expecting it may get a little bit colder this afternoon. Maybe rain or snow tonight but people, you know, again, it is really an amazing atmosphere. The sun is shining. It is not as cold as it was four years ago. The conditions are pretty comfortable for everybody. John david thank you so much. Im glad you wont be freezing all morning long. Absolutely. John well check back with you shortly. Governor, i was in d. C. Over the weekend. You were, as well. While i was amazed at how nice the weather was, i was also amazed at how incredibly the city was with overjoyed people. You dont normally think about a president s second inauguration as a time of great celebration. When you consider the amount of negative propaganda, the amount of dishonesty in the campaign that this president was up against which weve discussed on the air before was fairly unprecedented whether you support everything in this president s agenda or not. In many ways, i think it is an even greater accomplishment. When you consider what he was running against in 2008, that conceivably anybody could have beaten the republican running on the bush record then, many feel this is an even greater achievement to have gained reelection after four such contentious, difficult years. It is really reflected in just the exuberance of the crowd. I was really surprised. Jennifer probably the republicans left town. Everybody there was hardworking supporter. John we want to go over to Michael Shure in the great liberal town of portland, oregon, this morning. It is a pleasure to see you. It is very early where you are. How is your Inauguration Day going on the west coast . John, it is very, very early but if you want to be in the heart of the inauguration action, you come to portland, oregon. Jennifer of course. I think the subtlety of Michael Hastings talking about what a great day this is for the emperial president could not be lost on us. It just speaks to what a real american tradition it is. It is a great way to look back at the history of our country at different times. To see taft and roosevelt on horseback going through, you know, horse and carriage going through the snow to their inauguration to seeing the end of the use of the top hat when jfk was inaugurated to seeing jimmy carter walk down when everyone thought the limo broke, he got out and walked. To see the as john pointed out, to see the reinauguration of our first africanamerican president , it is an exciting day for everyone in america. We broke from royalty hundreds of years ago now. We still like a little bit every once in awhile. This is our day for that. John michael, you bring up very good points. The poor horse that had to drag tafts carriage all those years ago. This is almost 224 years George Washington was sworn in as our first president. I think it is fitting we have Michael Hastings here and that youre spending the morning in portland. One of our most progressive cities. This is a president elected largely due to the grassroots work of progressives and liberals. Many of whom had issues with his policies and still have but i think it goes to show whereas the republican party, one could argue was identified this year by purity tests, the Democratic Party shows you could be completely in the tank for this president s election while still taking issue with the policies. Jennifer Janet Napolitano walking. You can see the cabinets coming into the capitol. Janet chewing a little bit of gum. We saw eric holder, tom vilsack. There is a great excitement when you are a member of the cabinet being able to go especially if it is your last one. Timothy geithner walking in right now. Everybody sort of shuffling in. Im sure they gather into a room before walking up together. Janet napolitano is one of the unsing heroes of thiS Administration. She gets a lot of criticism but shes done great things. The Immigration Reform was out of her Office Especially the response to hurricane sandy. John if she hadnt left the Governors Office of arizona, we wouldnt have jan brewer today. Jennifer on the west coast, michael, obviously it is early on the west coast. I know that progressives community has got their tvs all turned on to current tv to watch the crowds walking in. But what you know, i assume youre in portland for different reasons. Yeah. Im in portland for a different reason. As a matter of fact, ill be in San Francisco later today for the rest of our coverage. And ill see you on the war room im sure. The whole its funny. Yesterday, of course, they were marking the anniversary of roe v. Wade. I was walking through this liberal city that i didnt know very well which ive come to like in the few days ive been here. I was walking through and there was a prolife demonstration there. There was a smattering of people in the middle of pioneer square. Not a big number of people there. I thought how ironic that tomorrow were going to be inaugurating a president who has, again, john pointed out, elected by the liberals in this country who came out and really a lot of them very disappointed with his first term to be frank as we know. But who came out and voted and reelected him. Here i am in portland. Liberal city that the sort of prolife march. And rally. I went and stlood and listened to them. I felt like that was yesterdays america. You point out that people are watching current tv. This, for us, is also the symmetry of our year with politically direct coverage. We started out the very beginning covering the republican debates. We didnt know who the president would be running against. Here we are at the end seeing his inauguration. Nice for us here at current as well. Jennifer it is. I have viewed it as a bit of a mission on our part to make sure this day arrived. Were going to take a quick break. Well be back. Weve got residents, historians, political analysts and of course the great coverage of the inauguration of president barack obama. Stay tuned. The pomp, the circumstance, the insight and analysis. Current tv presents the president ial inauguration plus insight into obamas second term. Only on current tv. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. John welcome back to current tvs coverage of the 2013 inauguration of president obamas term. Im John Fuglesang joined by Jennifer Granholm. Were thrilled to be with you providing play play by play brig you whats in the history and whats in the future. Jennifer thousands of people mobbing the capitol. John former president carter and his wife, rosalyn showed up. It is a day of great history. It will be the first time the official invocation is given by a woman and by a nonclergy member as well at a president ial inauguration. It has been well documented that the president will be using two bibles when hes sworn in. One by abraham lincoln. One owned by Martin Luther king jr. Those are the two men barack obama cites as his greatest inspirations. Hes the fourth president to be sworn in using two bibles. Likewise, the entertainment today as has been well documented, beyonce singing the national anthem. James taylor will perform as will American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson. She was an outspoken mitt romney supporter now here to celebrate the president s inaugural. I kind of feel like i need extra help. Lets make history ourself for the first skype interview in the politically direct coverage of the 20122013 campaign season. To the great bill press right there on the ground in washington, d. C. Good morning, sir. Happy Inauguration Day. Bill hi, john. Hi, jennifer. Im so proud to make history on current tv today. Im not the only one to do so today. Jennifer youre skypeing from the ground so you can give us some perspective. Where are you located, bill . Bill well, if you are president obama standing at the podium, right, look out over the Washington Mall and you turn your head to the right, thats where bill press is. On the north media riser. It is an excellent viewpoint. Like you, weve been watching them. Some of the key members of the president S Administration come in and take their seats. I have to tell you, ive been to a couple of inaugurations. This reminds me of four years ago in that it is so festive. People here everywhere are having a great time. Walking down here this morning from our studio on capitol hill. People were chanting barack obama. Theyre wearing their buttons. Jennifer we can see the justices of the Supreme Court. Sorry to interrupt you. We were just watching feed of the justices of the Supreme Court walking in. Sonya sotomayor, stephen breyer. Bill, can you tell because of the weather, whether theyve got warmers on the ground, have people been given blankets or has that been dispensed with because it is a fairly nice day . Bill i think its maybe mid40s which for january in washington is pretty good. But i did notice on the platform, where the president and the first family will be sitting, they are putting blankets out on the chairs. Blue blankets. So well see if anybody uses them. But in the crowd here today, people have their overcoats on and some people, not me are wearing woolen caps. John bill, youre one of my favorite political reporters. Youve proven yourself to be one of the keenest owners of all things political. Is there anything you would really like to hear him touch upon today in his speech . Bill you know, thats thank you for the kind words, john. Back at you. I have to tell you, as a progressive, i would love to hear the president get up today and say hey, guys, you know, weve tried to make nice to you. Weve tried to work with you and proved that doesnt work so were going to go dare i say lets just say full court press on all of the issues we care about on Immigration Reform and on guns and doing something about gun violence and all of the big issues. Global warming. Youre either going to come with us or youre not. I doubt thats what were going to hear from the president. Hes not his style, my style or your style. I think what were going to hear is hes going to stress today common ground. As americans, we agree on a hell of a lot