The Day When Civility Reigns — However Briefly

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It was hard to ignore the old unresolved dramas of the day.

Whether it was Hillary Clinton's warm greeting of former President Bush, or Jimmy Carter's serious exchange with Colin Powell, or Dick Cheney's handshake with Al Gore, the inauguration of George W. Bush was studded with moments of tension, underlying symbolism or plain old emotion.

When Bill Clinton and Al Gore silently descended the blue-carpeted stairs toward the podium, bearing their respective titles for the last time, it was impossible not to wonder what thoughts must be racing through their minds.

When the new president and his family stood beside Chief Justice Rehnquist and his family after taking the oath of office, it was difficult to ignore the raw emotion on the elder Bush's face.

And when Al Gore leaned across to his onetime adversary and murmured, "Good speech," the poignancy was inescapable.

Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising that there should be one day when surface civility overrides partisan warfare. But it is — there are precious few occasions in American life when the most cynical among us can turn on the television and witness a moment so purely devoid of rancor and so full of hope as Inauguration Day. And while the sting of the fall's election result is undoubtedly fresh in the minds of many across the country today, it seems small somehow to resist the pull of buried pride stirred by Washington's pomp and circumstance.

As Bill Clinton and Al Gore take their first baby steps back into civilian life, and George W. Bush and Dick Cheney take stock of their new administration, there is a fleeting moment when the Presidency is not a position inhabited by something so insignificant as a human being — but an institution larger, grander and more perfect than any of us.

Monday, of course, the bickering will resume and the bitterness will reemerge and the presidency will once again be consumed by its political nature. But for the moment, anyway, we can all imagine we belong to a perfect union, whose purpose is as sweeping and unequivocal as the words of any inaugural address.