Was Obama's inaugural worth cold wait?

by Janet Hook and Ben Meyerson

James Smith, a black man who traveled from Texas for President Obama's inauguration, said it was worth the long trip and frigid weather -- and having to bring his grandfather to the infirmary.

He said the sober tone of the speech was appropriate. ``It's not going to be an easy process. And it's not going to be done all by him. It's the country that has to come together.''

The massive crowd that descended upon the National Mall to witness Obama's swearing-in was a devoted one - they came out well before dawn, braving temperatures that got colder after daybreak as wind chill temperatures flirted with single digits.

Thom Rhoad, a financial planner, traveled from Portland, Maine, for the event, braving a blizzard that dropped a foot of snow there.

He said it was surely worth it, even as he jumped up and down to get warm.

Seven year old Lucinda Cantwell was not so sure. ``There were a lot of tall people in front of me,'' she said.

Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) was moved by the ``bookend'' quality of the event. ``Forty years after Martin Luther King said I have a dream, here is the dream,'' he said.``That's the beauty of it.''

Latasha Dickerson arrived to the National Mall around 4 a.m. after walking from her downtown hotel, and her spot was still seven blocks away from the Capitol.

"Even with us having to walk, I don't know how many miles now, and the freezing temperatures, it was well worth it," said Dickerson, who made the cross-country trip from balmy Paramount, Calif. "All of the events this weekend, his speech today, and just the people and their camaraderie, it was wonderful. I met people from all over, from Trinidad, from Haiti -- I even met people Obama played basketball with in Hawaii."

Tim and Kathy Sutherton were among the lucky few to get their hands on hard tickets to the inauguration. The couple from Sayville, N.Y. won standing tickets in a lottery through Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

But even though they had guaranteed admission close to the actual ceremony, they still left for Washington's subway at 5 a.m. The Suthertons didn't mind leaving so early, though -- it landed them a spot only five people behind people with seats. And the experience, they said, made the wait well worth it.

"It was spectacular, it was moving - we finally have a president who articulately speaks to the whole country, speaks to the world, and you don't have to be embarrassed by him," Kathy Sutherton said.

However, transportation leaving the ceremony was the worst part, the Suthertons said.

"We left the capital grounds when Obama was done speaking, and what time is it now? Three hours later. We went to the Metro [Washington's subway system], and it didn't seem like a safe situation to us," Tim Sutherton said. "We got several blocks away, and I didn't feel it was safe -- it was just a sea of people crammed into a small space."

David Frankl was chaperoning a group of high school students who made the trip from Eagle River, Alaska -- a town halfway between Anchorage and Sarah Palin's home city of Wasilla. However, even living in the U.S.'s northernmost state didn't prepare him and his group for Washington's frigid temperatures.

"We came from Alaska, and it still was cold," Frankl said.