DAVID BROOKS ON THE MOOD IN WASHINGTON ANTICIPATING OBAMA'S "CORONATION"

Brooks writes:

". . . the U.S. capital is enjoying a season of rebirth. Sixty-seven percent to 75 percent of Americans have positive feelings toward Barack Obama and his transition. Perhaps up to four million people will attend the inauguration, possibly filling the entire space between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.

Washingtonians do not speak of this as a political transition. They speak of the inaugural as a cultural, psychological and historic event. It seems to have become, in their minds, like an ancient tribal rite — the purging of sin, the elevation of the pure, the moral regeneration of the nation’s soul. It would not surprise your ambassador if the Americans were to throw a sacrificial goat into a volcano as part of the primal offerings.  [my emphasis]

He goes on to speak of other things:

There is a feeling of audacity sweeping the ruling circles. America’s rulers have widened their eyes, enlarged their perspectives.

For example, zeros have lost their meanings. The amount of consideration once devoted to a proposal costing $3 billion is now devoted to a proposal costing $300 billion. Americans have entered the age of budgetary infinity.

Once a $100 billion stimulus package was large, but now the stimulus proposals have passed through $300 billion to $500 billion on their way to infinity.