Caroline Kennedy is doing the right thing by withdrawing from her campaign to succeed Hillary Clinton in the US Senate.

The inaugural weekend successfully diverted attention to the festivities and stunning turnout celebrating the historic circumstances of a new administration’s transition to the helm of the most powerful country on earth.

That was fast. There is a brand new White House website that looks a lot like the sweeping bluish blend of the Obama campaign website that has been uploaded. Check it out — along with the first post of the “White House Blog.

This is a guest post by Amjad Attalah, Co-Director of the New America Foundation/Middle East Task Force. As Barack Obama was sworn in today as the 44th president of the United States, Israeli troops were rapidly withdrawing from the Gaza Strip after both Israel and Hamas announced “unilateral” cease-fires.

Hail to the Chief is being played for the last time for Bush as the incumbent President of the United States. That song will be Barack Obama’s alone for the next four years. The National Mall is the most full it has ever been for an event like this — and it’s 25 degrees outside….

This is a guest post by filmmaker and author Eugene Jarecki. The video clip above is from a talk that Jarecki gave last Thursday at the New America Foundation on the topic, “The American Way of War.

Josh Marshall just announced the launch of TPMDC — another franchise in the growing Talking Points Memo new media empire. Matt Cooper will be at the helm of the newly launched ship as editor-at-large. More later.

Worth watching and pondering. Andrew Golis sent a good note this morning encouraging folks to look beyond MLK the icon. Golis writes: . . .the flip side of being a part of the American canon is that many of the more challenging ideas that don’t fit comfortably within the mainstream, have been conveniently forgotten.

(photo credit: Brian Greer) “That’s Obama!” No words can say more than this picture of excitement and hope in pure form.

Maureen Dowd threw a “Star Spangled Banner” party — so I wore a star spangled tie. My modest attempt at festive attire wasn’t matched by anyone else there. Maureen loved the tie and told me her sister had originally wanted everyone to come patriotically dressed.