armchair cultural observation since 1995

He used to be a walker

Barack Obama used to be a walker, breaking from his work for 15 minutes each afternoon to stroll outside and clear his head. But that was then. On the first day of his life as the 44th president of the United States, Obama needed to travel three blocks from his temporary home to a church service. The trip required 20 Secret Service agents, a 14-car motorcade, precautionary gas masks and a specially armored Cadillac limousine.

That wake-up call at 8:47 a.m. set the tone for the rest of Obama’s day and foreshadowed at least the next four years of his life. Simple trips will never again be simple; personal space will no longer belong to him. So, even as he celebrated his inauguration, Obama acted like a man bestowed with sobering new burdens.

-From a Washington Post article by Eli Saslo and Michael A. Fletcher

(Hat Tip: Get Religion)

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