It was warm this morning when Stephen Colbert was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. The steps of the Memorial were full of guests, as expected, and from a distance they appeared like a swarming mass as the 500 waiters specially hired for the event, were busy serving hot chocolate, donuts, hot dogs and an occasional Gin and Vodka to everyone in sight including guards, tourists and uniformed soldiers.
It had been an incredible voyage for the newly elected president and also for a country eager to put an end to a sorry episode in its history. Few times in the history of our country people had rejoiced in such intense manner, not upon electing a new president but having the departing one leave the capital the night before. The collective sigh from 300 million Americans and about 5 billion humans abroad, heard some days before when the election results were announced , NASA claimed, was felt in the entire solar system and caused airplanes in flight to correct their flight characteristics as the turbulence caused by the sigh resembled a monumental burp.
President Colbert cut the ceremony short. There was no elaborate speech by the new occupant of the White House. A single phrase defined the arrival of a new era in politics in our country. “Those who voted for me can have another hot dog, same as those who didn’t!” In that short phrase President Colbert had distilled an entirely new set of principles and a philosophical outlook; new and revolutionary social and political outlooks were born at that very moment.
Stephen Colbert had never ceased to amaze me and many others. Days before the inauguration I asked him about his political platform, his vision of the country and the major political and social questions that demanded immediate attention. You see, during his campaign he had not devoted any time to talk about what he planned to do; instead, he concentrated strangely on the Constitution which he blamed for every thing wrong in the country.
Not once did he question or accuse any of the other candidates, nor asked them directly about anything. Not once did he address the issues that kept the entire country wondering about the current and the next crisis. Best of all he had no venom toward anyone; it was just supreme indifference to the other aspiring pols, justified by his famous sentence “this is not a confessional festival and I do not care about the sins of others; I am happy with mine!”
Only once he deplored the sad and tragic end of the 43rd presidency. Only once he made a comment about it: “ This has been a simple case of an onion being served as a truffle!”
Jokingly he used to say that he would be happy to learn of one single positive and beneficial act that could be traced to the previous administration and he would ask James Fry to write a book about it.
With a hot dog in his hand he entered the Oval Office for the first time. He agreed to pose for the traditional photograph and allowed the media a period of two minutes, at the end of which he asked everyone in the office to leave, except me.
He looked around approvingly, took off his tie and jacket and sat down in front of the presidential desk. I could not help saying:
“Steve, this is a rare and precious moment. Say something”
He smiled at me with that familiar shiny expression and replied:
“Do you think I could get another hot dog?”
