Talk:First inauguration of Barack Obama/GA1

GA Review edit

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Hey Tony. As I discussed with you before, I'm going to review this one; this is my first ever GAN review, so let me know if I miss anything. So far, it seems to fit the Good article criteria, although I still have to read from "Retaking the oath" on. However, I have some suggestions that I can pass along now. For the most part, the article looks really good to me; I actually haven't found ANY grammatical problems yet at all. Most of my stuff below is citation stuff, which should be easy to fix, although I do start with some content related stuff... --Hunter Kahn (talk) 08:09, 8 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

  • Under the Inaugural address section, it should be mentioned that the speech was at least in part a repudiation of George W. Bush and his presidency, despite the fact that Bush himself isn't mentioned by name in that manner. At the very least, there should be a mention that several media outlets interpreted it this way. There are lots of sources on this, including here, here and here.
  • Along those same lines, there were several news reports, including here and here, about the Bush team being annoyed about the shots taken at Bush in the inaugural speech. I think this warrants a mention too; probably in the same Inaugural address section, unless you can think of somewhere else.
  • Under Attendance: Guests, I really think it is worth mentioning that Dick Cheney appeared at the inauguration in a wheelchair. There are several other links about that besides the one I mentioned, and although it's not the most crucial detail, as I recall it was quite the big deal among the press.

Now, on to the easy stuff...

From the intro

  • I would suggest dropping the fourth citation in the intro about the "We Are One" event and replacing it with either this one or this one, which you already have as citations on the page elsewhere. The HBO site is a legitimate source, but I imagine HBO will remove it from its page some day, whereas the other two are journalistic source so they'll be around forever. Just a suggestion...
  • The ninth and final source in the intro makes no mention of the parade along Pennsylvania Avenue, 10 inaugural balls at the Washington Convention Center. This source does so you might want to replace it.

From "Train ride: Commemorating Lincoln"

  • Unless I'm missing it, the first source here has no reference to the 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. references you include. (The source DOES include one for the 11:30 a.m. reference.) I know I'm already being a stickler with the citations, but could you find and include one that does have those times? If you can't find one, I'd just take them out altogether and put in that he left in the morning or something; it's not really a crucial detail.
  • The CNN story in the next citation has a mention of fans shouting "I love you Obama," and him replying "I love you back." I know this is hardly important but it is kind of a cute detail (cute enough to make the headline of the story, anyway). Do you think it should be tossed into the article?
  • There are other cool little details in the freep story that you might consider tossing in, like how 40 everyday Americans were invited along, the food drives and the extreme security.
    • O.K.
  • What is the source for Lincolns train "stopping in 70 places along the way?"

From "Concert at the Lincoln Memorial: We Are One"

  • How about adding a {{main|We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial}} tag to the top of the "Concert at the Lincoln Memorial: We Are One" section? If you're opposed to it I won't stand by this suggestion, but I think it would be appropriate.
  • There is no citation after the sentence about all the musical performances. Unless you are counting the citations in the first sentence of the next paragraph, but if that's the case, a number of the performers ( Mary J. Blige, Jon Bon Jovi, Renee Fleming, Caleb Green, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, Bettye Lavette, Jennifer Nettles, Pete Seeger, will.i.am.) are not mentioned in those sources. HOWEVER, this site names them all and is a legitimate source, so could you toss that in as a source after all the performers?
  • Not to be a stickler, but in the sentence about the celebrity speakers, neither of the two sources refer to the following speakers: Jack Black, Steve Carell, Rosario Dawson, Tom Hanks, Ashley Judd, Laura Linney, George Lopez, Kal Penn, Marisa Tomei, Forest Whitaker, Tiger Woods. Once again, however, the site I mentioned above has them all, so you can toss that in as a source and you're covered.

From "Kids' inaugural: 'We Are the Future'"

  • Maybe toss in a mention from here about Michelle Obama's call for kids to do services like visiting homeless shelters, visiting elderly people or writing letters to U.S. troops?

From "Unofficial pre-inaugural events"

From "Inauguration events: Summary

  • You already previously wikilinked Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, don't need to do it again.
  • This source, which is already used in the article, mentions that the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies released the full scheduled of January 20 swearing in ceremonies on December 17 and refers to the president-elect as "Barack H. Obama" even though he had previously specifically said he will be referred to as "Barack Hussein Obama." I think this is interesting and merits mentioning. I thought maybe here would be appropriate, although if you can think of another section that is better, I'm open to that.

From "Inaugural ceremony: 'A New Birth of Freedom'"

  • I'm not seeing citations for "The oath of office for Vice President Biden was followed by the first playing of four ruffles and flourishes and "Hail, Columbia."" or "which also delayed the administering of the oath that finished around 12:05 p.m. EST (17:05 UTC)," although it's entirely possible I'm missing them somewhere.

I'll finish up the rest of this ASAP.

--Hunter Kahn (talk) 08:09, 8 February 2009 (UTC)Reply


Here's the rest...

From Inaugural luncheon

  • The source on Senator Robert Byrd doesn't mention him that I can see. Here does. I also think it's worth mentioning that the reason he left (which lead to the false reports) was that he was too disturbed by Kennedy's seizure to continue eating.

From Inaugural parade

  • There is a [citation needed] that was there before my review started, but it needs adressing. The URL link for that citation (the Sacramento Bee) one is missing so I couldn't check it.
  • The source for the citation about the "15,000 people, 240 horses ... and mariachi band" doesn't actually include that information.

From Post-inaugural events: Inaugural balls

  • I tripped over this sentence, "The official inaugural balls where President Obama spoke to attending guests to honor the occasion and where he danced with his wife as the First Couple to the song or music of the Etta James' classic, At Last, include:" I'd suggest rewording it to something like "President Obama spoke to attending guests to honor the occasion and danced with his wife as the First Couple to the song or music of the Etta James' classic, At Last, at the following official inaugural balls:"
  • In "The Commander-in-Chief's Ball", the sources make no mention of the Purple Heart.
  • In "The Eastern Ball," the source makes no mention of James Taylor.

From Unofficial balls

  • Need a source for the "Salute to Heroes Inaugural Ball." All the others are fine.
    • O.K.--TonyTheTiger (t/c/bio/WP:CHICAGO/WP:LOTM) 21:05, 9 February 2009 (UTC)Reply
      • This one still seems to be missing a source. --Hunter Kahn (talk) 01:58, 10 February 2009 (UTC)Reply
        • I went looking for a source, and I found this. It looks like Obama skipped this ball and was the first president since Eisenhower to do so. I think this is worth incorporating into the story, whether here or elsewhere. --Hunter Kahn (talk) 05:08, 10 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

From Attendance: Guests

  • In your mentions of Maggie Obama and Said Obama's attendance, maybe you'll want to add that fact that Obama's half-brother Malik Obama was also there. Malik is mentioned in the sources you cite.
  • Suggest rewording this: "To address complaints by the ticket holders who were prevented from gaining entry to view the inaugural ceremony, Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, launched an investigation into the matter." into this: "Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, launched an investigation to address complains by the ticket holders who were prevented from gaining entry to view the inaugural ceremony."
  • Drop the phrase "to be distributed to the disappointed ticket holders" from the sentence: "The commemorative items to be distributed to the disappointed ticket holders would include a copy of the swearing-in invitation and program, photos of President Obama and Vice President Biden and a color print of the inaugural ceremony." You already established they were disappointed ticker holders in the previous sentence. Also in that sentence, change "would include" to "included."

From Crowd estimates

  • I found the first paragraph in this section to be a bit redundant. This is how I would word it, you can use all or none of it: "No official count was taken of the number of people attending the inauguration ceremony, although multiple sources concluded it was the highest attended event ever held in Washington, D.C. Government agencies and federal officials that coordinated security and traffic management the attendance count to be 1.8 million, based on information collected by several cameras and individuals on the ground. The Washington Post reported the number and the National Park Service said it did "not contest" the estimate."
  • Can we say 240,000 instead of 0.240 million people in the second paragraphs?
  • You mention those who "showed up for [Johnson]," but there's no context in the story as to what this is. Can you mention at the end of the quote that this refers to the 1.2 million crowd estimates from the Lyndon B. Johnson 1965 presidential inauguration?

From Security

From Internet traffic

From International attention: Europe"'

  • "Ireland toasted the inauguration of Obama with whiskey, bread and even a radio station renamed in his honor. Distant relatives gathered in Moneygall, County Offaly, where Obama's ancestors lived during the 1800s, while the Democratic Party faithful living in Ireland threw a bash in Dublin." This is word for word taken from the source. Could you reword it a bit to avoid any plagurism accusations?

From See also

--Hunter Kahn (talk) 03:11, 9 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

Passed. Very nice!