Senator Jack Reed is getting some play for his comments on former Vice President Dick Cheney's latest pronouncements on Afghanistan. From The Hill:

Republicans have developed a pattern of criticizing President Barack Obama for trying to fix problems the GOP caused, one Democratic senator said Thursday.

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.

US Senator Ted Kennedy's endorsement of Barack Obama during the Democratic primary last year was, of course, an important bit of symbolism for the candidate - Camelot passes the torch to a new generation.

But it was also noteworthy in that it signaled a split between the nation's two most storied Democratic families - the Kennedys and the Clintons.

With Obama pressing his case, Politico details a counter-argument:

The language used to make the case for stimulus is stark and gloomy — and, by all measures, pretty accurate. But there is also a caveat attached to every solution proposed: that it simply might not work. Economists on the right and left say there is a chance, perhaps a decent one, that $1 trillion injected into a $14 trillion economy might be too little, too late to turn things around anytime soon.

Social-networking and other forms of new media played an important role in the Obama campaign. The NYT today looks at what might be ahead for the "Obama movement," or what it calls a YouTube presidency:

His aides — including his campaign manager — have created a group, Organizing for America, to redirect the campaign machinery in the service of broad changes in health care and environmental and fiscal policy.

Steven Stark has a good read on how the Obama administration has the biggest collection of brainpower since the long-gone days of JFK -- and how that carries its own risks.

[I]t's worth remembering how radical a change this is in our political life. "The best and the brightest" and "the wise men" had absolutely no use for George W.

Some social observers have long complained that too many Americans function more as consumers than citizens. There's plenty of blame for this to go around, including our excessive shopping culture, a news media that focus more on fluff than real issues (like the lingering problems in the banking industry), and government's failure to offer the kind of oversight that might have precluded the current fiscal crisis.

Although the inauguration day spread at the Scituate home of longtime liberal political activist Kate Coyne-McCoy included an array of frittatas, grilled sausages, roast potatoes, and Champagne, the main sustenance for a like-minded group of about dozen guests was the political manna represented by the swearing-in of Barack Obama.

Whether it's the inauguration at hand, the optimism that Americans feel even in the midst of economic crisis, or any number of other things (like O's status as a guy who digs words), these are remarkable days. Imagine how MLK Jr. would feel.

A roundup of some of what's going on tomorrow:

Pat and some of his crew are in DC, blogging at RI's Future

Those looking for big, sweeping changes from the man soon to be our next president may want to consider the following.

Writing today in the New York Times Book Review, history professor Alan Brinkley takes note of how the American economy, about 35 years ago, "began to move onto a different path .... it began to concentrate income and wealth in the upper brackets .

Here's a rundown on some of the inauguration watch events taking place next Tuesday, January 20. I'll post others if I receive word of them.

AG and early Obama supporter Patrick Lynch:

In celebration of Barack Obama being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on this Tuesday, January 20, Attorney General Patrick Lynch is hosting an inauguration watch party at PPAC (Providence Performing Arts Center).

As we know, there were lots of dubious claims cast against Obama during the bygone presidential election. Such talk has mostly dissipated, perhaps because of the largely centrist course pursued by the president-elect in the run-up to his inauguration. My Boston Phoenix colleague Adam Reilly looks at what's ahead (in a sidebar, Adam also writes on why tightening up on anti-Obama speech is a bad idea):

Even before Obama's inauguration, a view is emerging among a number of progressives that the president-elect goes too far in trying to be all things to all people. US Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, never one to mince words, airs this belief as part of an excellent Jeffrey Toobin profile in last week's New Yorker:

Mark Weiner, the prodigious Democratic fundraiser and Clinton confidante, and his wife have combined to donate $100,000, the maximum allowable, for Obama's inauguration. Steven Stycos reports in this week's Phoenix.

Obama set the strictest limits ever for a presidential inauguration, limiting individual donations to $50,000 and declining contributions from corporations, unions, lobbyists, or political action committees.

Providence City Solicitor Joseph Fernandez isn't allowing his nascent 2010 campaign for AG to completely cast away the possibility of working in the Obama administration.

Last Friday, during a taping for next Sunday's broadcast of WPRI/WNAC-TV's Newsmakers (we taped two shows, due to the holiday this week), Fernandez revealed that he is among the 350,000 or so people who have submitted a resume to Change.