Forget for now the way Inauguration Days have unfolded in the past. Jan. 20, 2009, could turn out to be a very different kind of swearing in.
Sometime around noon that day, Barack Obama will stand before millions of people on the west front of the Capitol, put his hand on the Bible and promise to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Then after delivering his Inaugural Address, the 44th President may step inside the Capitol and sign the lead elements of a two-year, $1 trillion economic-stimulus package, the largest ever fiscal booster shot in peacetime. Never mind...