Interview

“. . . an angel still rides in the whirlwind and directs this storm.”
—George W. Bush’s inaugural speech, January 20, 2001, borrowing from a possibly illuminist letter to Thomas Jefferson from John Page

During the maudlin final days of the Bush administration, I glumly wondered if New York would even survive until O-Day, January 20, 2009. Twin Towers gone, Wall Street tanked, Hamas bombing Israel and vice versa. Allah is apparently just not that into us. And then a lone angel alit: Sully, the pilot who landed the bird-struck US Airways jet on the Hudson. And miraculously the mood changed. Hope broke out.

And it was with glee that I accepted an invitation to the Barack-mitzvah, as comedian Jeffrey Ross christened the Barack-alypse of balls and fetes in D.C. To sweeten the deal, my A (for Angel)-list host, Joe Andrew, former chair of the DNC, a college bud, hired Anwar, an amazing driver, who comes with Batmobile GPS, which proved a godsend as the key roads and bridges into the capital were barricaded and it was tricky to navigate from F St. to G.