Whither the weather
Predictions regarding President-elect Barack Obama are growing, but to hear Emmett Beliveau tell it, don’t expect a stem-winder.
The executive director of the Presidential Inaugural Committee appeared at the Aspen Institute on Friday to speak about the plans for Jan. 20, and he acknowledged that the weather will be a huge factor. Responding to a question about William Henry Harrison (the president who died from pneumonia he caught during his lengthy inaugural speech), Beliveau said Obama “will be very conscious of the fact that we’re outside.”
As far as it goes, he said the PIC would “be happy with an average of the two Reagan days” (President Ronald Reagan took the oath on one unseasonably balmy day, and one legendarily cold day).
Beliveau also addressed the uncomfortable issue of toilets on the Mall and the parade route. “Our team is working with the National Park Service to place them,” he said. “We want 5,000 between the parade route and the Mall. … Half have been placed, we’re working to place the other half. … They will be see multiple days of use, but they will be serviced.”
Good. Nothing like being cold AND smelling raw sewage.
