Grappling clumsily with grand understatement, it has been a most interesting week.

Though not at all out of the ordinary, it seemed especially appropriate for the observance of MLK's birthday to fall on the day before the inauguration.  Indeed, this coincidence was widely observed in news media and commentary.  I thoroughly enjoyed hearing older African-Americans describe their experience of a day that seemed as if it would never arrive.  To be sure, the historical context was front and center.  However, I heard relatively little about the condition of African-American life in contemporary America.  Here's something to ponder: Will we see, on the other side of Barack Obama's presidency, a decrease in the discrepancies between African-American economic, incarceration and education statistics and those on their white counterpats?  I say this not to disparage the symbolism of the moment, but rather to point out that the symbolism here is punctuation on a sentence that was already completed.  How far will we get into the next paragraph during Obama's tenure?  (For those of you who are fans of Hillary Clinton, a similar question could have been posed.  Would her presidency have ultimately changed, for example, the realities of disparate wages for working women?)

Though Pastor Rick Warren's words were pretty much boilerplate ecumenical stuff, nearly half of his time being taken up by the lord's prayer, his presence was an uncomfortable stain on the proceedings.  I have little doubt that his invitation will eventually come to be universally recognized as regrettable.

I will readily confess a certain elation at hearing that THFKAMO (The Helicopter Formerly Known As Marine One) had taken off with George W. Bush as cargo.  The phrase "good riddance" has rarely known such fulfilling application.

Barack Obama's inaugural address was appropriately sober, something of a departure from the tone of his many campaign speeches.  Though some seemed disappointed by a more grounded message, I was neither disappointed nor surprised at this change in tone.

All in all, I'm definitely a bit jealous of my fellow Daggers who were able to attend the inauguration in person.  I think it says a lot that we live in a society that can celebrate the transition of leadership, an event of the type that is all too often marked with bloodshed in other places of the world, with numbers exceeding one million in attendance essentially without incident.

And now we're here.  We've arrived at the place in time that so many of us have hoped and worked for.

So, where are we?  Let it suffice to say that we have considerable difficulties ahead of us.  This shouldn't be news to anyone.  We seem to be looking at a recession that may last for most of 2009, possibly longer.  Though the economically inclined (how's that for a turn of phrase?) seem to finally be coming around to the reality that we may have no other choice but to adopt a similar approach to that used by Sweden in the 1990s, the ascendancy (or re-ascendancy in some cases) of people like Larry Summers, Robert Rubin and Timorthy Geithner are troubling here.  (For instance, why does the conventional wisdom seem to be that Geithner's recent tenure at the the NY Fed leaves him, as I've heard it put several times, "uniquely qualified" to address our current economic and financial malaise?  Doesn't it rather leave him uniquely unqualified, having been at the helm of the epicenter of the financial crisis?  I am of course simplifying beyond the true circumstances of these somewhat bureaucratic instituions, but the question lingers.)  Are the American people and their leadership really ready to face up to the possibility that the late 20th century model of American debt-money finance and unregulated capitalism might simply be ipso facto unsustainable in the long run?  As of right now, I'd have to say that the answer as of yet is simply, "No."

We are, of course, still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Beyond this, we have cause for immediate concern and attention with respect for Russia and China.  Russia appears to be fully ready to wage economic warfare as we prepare to see whether or not the global supply of petroleum is indeed about to decline.  China, though somewhat less troubling in the immediate sense, will also pose a new set of challenges over the next decade.

Then there's the renewed conflict between Israel and Palestine.  This takes me back to something I wrote over at TPM nearly a year ago.  It's more relevant now than it was then.  To put it bluntly, unilateral support for the policies and practices of any nation, whether Israel or not, is tantamount to insanity.  This should not be confused with the mere support for a state called Israel.  Consider this: Would you unilaterally support all of the actions of anyone you know?  My hope would be for a much more multilateral approach to relations with both Israel and Palestine, but I don't have high expectations of seeing Hillary Clinton spearhead such an effort.

Finally, we have the terrible legacy of illegality and injustice under the Bush administration.  Acts that span the length of Bush's presidency, including the Patriot Act and MCA, lies about WMD, the outting of Valerie Plame, NSA wiretapping, GITMO, torture and rendition and the politicization of the US DOJ have all left scars on American democracy.  To what extent will an Obama administration be willing to address these transgressions by the American government against both her own citizens and citizens of the world abroad?

I am heartened by Obama's expedient moves on GITMO.  I am also heartened by the presence of Steven Chu in the Obama administration.  Imagine: A bona fide Nobel laureate in the field of physics heading the DOE instead of a crony from the oil industry.  I almost feel as if I need to pinch myself.

All in all, we find ourselves at a moment in time that is both elating and troubling.  Perhaps, in this way, it is no different than any other moment in history.