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Opinion: First takes: Was the inauguration worth the trip?

By Janet Hook
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WASHINGTON -- James Smith, a black man who traveled from Texas for the inauguration, said it was worth the long trip and frigid weather — and having to bring his grandfather to the infirmary.

Smith said the sober tone of Obama’s speech was appropriate.

‘It’s not going to be an easy process,’ he said. ‘And it’s not going to be done all by him. It’s the country that has to come together.’’

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Thom Rhoad, a financial planner who left Portland, Maine, during a blizzard that dropped a foot of snow, said he was glad he came, 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.

-- Janet Hook

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Janet Hook

Janet Hook covered national politics for the Los Angeles Times until October 2021. She returned to the Washington bureau in 2018 after spending eight years covering politics and Congress for the Wall Street Journal. Her first stint with The Times was in 1995-2010 covering Congress and politics. She was a fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics and received the Everett Dirksen Award for reporting on Congress, the Carey McWilliams Award for political reporting and the John S. Knight Fellowship for Professional Journalists. She is a graduate of Harvard University.

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