President-elect Barack Obama

Today marks the swearing in of the 44^th American president.  Expectations are high and many are hopeful for what Barack Obama and his team will contribute to the betterment of this country.  Even his ten year old daughter, Malia, has said, “It’d better be good”.

Now’s a good time to take a walk down memory lane.  Each new inauguration has been history-making, but for different reasons.  Here are a few “firsts” some of our past presidents claim:

George Washington’s wife, Martha, didn’t attend the inaugural ball in 1789 due to prior commitments.  George Washington also holds the record for the shortest inaugural address, coming in at only 135 words.  By comparison, in 1841, William H. Harrison gave the longest address.  His total word count was ten thousand words.

In 1853, Frank Pierce showed how well his memory was by not referring once to his notes as he delivered his address.

Four years later, in 1857, the first photograph was taken of James Buchanan as he was sworn in.

The first time a mother attended and watched her son be sworn in was in 1881 as James Garfield gave his address.

In 1901, Theodore Roosevelt became the first and only president to have not been sworn in on a Bible.

The first Mrs. to ride in the procession to the White House was William Taft’s wife in 1909.  This was also the first time an automobile was used in a parade.

Calvin Coolidge’s father administered the oath of office in 1925.  This was also the first to be broadcast by radio.

In 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to incorporate the 20^th Amendment by being sworn in on January 20^th.  In 1945, he accepted his third term and made history four years later by serving the only fourth term in history.  The 22^nd Amendment was ratified in 1951 that limits a president to two terms.

1949 brought us a televised event when Harry S. Truman made his acceptance speech.

John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president to take office.  His inauguration was in 1961 and he was sworn in with a Catholic version of the Bible.

In 1969, Richard Nixon was the first, and so far the only, president to use two Bibles as he was sworn in.  Both were family heirlooms.  In 1974, Gerald Ford became the first president to take office unelected via the 25^th Amendment that states the vice president becomes president if the current president resigns.

Ronald Regan enjoyed nine inaugural balls in 1981.  In 1985, the inaugural ball fell on Super Bowl Sunday.

In 1997, as Bill Clinton took office, it was the first time it was broadcast on the internet.

Twenty four hours from now, this inauguration will be a part of history and we’ll anticipate the deliverance of promises made to the American public.  How president-elect Obama goes down in history is yet to be seen, but if his daughter has anything to do with it, “it’d better be good”.

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One of the most enduring figures in the American justice system died Monday at the age of 90. Griffin Bell made history on many fronts that shaped the way our current legal system operates today. He was the attorney general for President Jimmy Carter and is said to be one of only a few to have passed the bar exam even before graduating law school. He served in the US Army Quartermaster Corps until 1946 as well as served as a city attorney for Warner Robins, GA. One of his highest-profile cases

Former AG Griffin Bell

before entering the political arena was the investigation into E.F. Hutton & Co. in 1980 for check kiting activities. Before being sworn in as the attorney general during the Carter administration, he served as a chairman in John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960. From there, President Kennedy appointed him to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a year later.

While awaiting Senate confirmation for President Carter’s attorney general nomination, there were a few less than pleasant questions he fielded regarding his membership in private segregated clubs as well as some of his controversial decisions made while he was a federal judge. Still, he was confirmed shortly after Carter took office.

Born in 1918, it’s reported he was a son of a Georgia cotton farmer who helped build the well-known Atlanta law firm, King and Spalding. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that he returned, after his political works, to retire from this same law firm. Most recently, he was one of the few Democrats who supported President Bush’s re-election in 2004 and was also responsible for a study that criticized the FBI’s internal policies for disciplining agents. He’s quoted in this report as saying the methods for agent reprimands are “seriously flawed”.

Perhaps one of the most important contributions he made, however, was the public confidence that was restored after the Watergate scandal that he’s widely credited with. It’s said he restored professionalism by posting publicly every day each third party contact he’d made, including all contacts with those in the White House, Congress and others.

President Carter, after hearing of his death, released a statement saying he was “a trusted and enduring public figure with integrity, professionalism and charm that was greatly valued across party lines and presidential administrations.”

On a personal note, he was the first politician to ever grace Mr. Blackwell’s best dressed Americans list.