THE PLANK MARCH 4, 2009
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Via Ben Smith, I see that Dianne Feinstein, in her capacity as chair of the Joint Committee on Inaugural Celebrations, has written a letter of apology and sent some schwag to the purple-ticket holders who got shut out of said Inauguarl Celebration (and whose ordeal I wrote about for the print mag). Seeing as how some of these purple ticket holders wanted a personal audience with Obama himself as a way to make up for what they went through, I'm not sure that the "special, limited-edition printing of packets of the 56th Inaugural
commemorative programs, invitations, photos of the President and Vice
President, and a full color photo print of the Ceremony" will assuage them.
Over at the Survivors of the Purple Tunnel of Doom Facebook page, the posts seem to be mostly falling in the "not enough" category, to wit:
On the front of the envelope was two names, mine and my son's. Only one
package. So again, another insult. One package, as though even though
we are at the same address, we aren't two different people.
I see the potential for a single-issue primary challenger to DiFi in 2012.
--Jason Zengerle
3 comments
-- I see the potential for a single-issue primary challenger to DiFi in 2012.
This might have been the case had Californians made up an appreciable numbers of purple ticket holders. Well, not really.
However, what did strike me about the inauguration was how little effort was made to make the inauguration a truly national event by having federally-sponsored events across the nation. It was nonstop DC/DC - plus a whole bundle of donation requests to sponsor parties for (purple) ticket holders. I find it hard to believe that Britain, for example, would not have spread the festivities of an admittedly rarer coronation throughout the land.
- ndmackenzie
March 4, 2009 at 3:32pm
Seriously, there's people complaining about one package for pairs of tickets?
Meh, I think this is the point where those of us that noticed this stop caring.
- GregSanders
March 4, 2009 at 3:36pm
What I don't understand is why these people stayed in the tunnel under the mall when their watches -- and the distant echoes of amplified sound from above -- told them that the event was starting. I'm sorry, but if you stand in a never-moving line underground even after the open-air event you're hoping to attend starts, instead of, you know, walking out into the open air where JumboTrons and giant speaker stands are available for you to see and hear the event in the same way as everyone else at the event, then you're not owed anything by anybody.
But then, the only people I know who had purple tickets actually were smart enough to simply walk back out of the tunnel and watch the inauguration, so perhaps I just have unreasonably high expectations of the intelligence of the Purple Ticket crowd.
- rhubarbs
March 4, 2009 at 5:17pm