Being There

Tuesday's inauguration represented a day of political redemption for 29-year-old Abraham Kneisley.

The San Franciso political consultant had previously worked on the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry.

And after his preferred 2008 candidate, John Edwards, dropped out after trailing Barack Obama in the Iowa caucuses, Kneisley said he decided Obama's campaign was the right one for him.

Standing inside the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum Tuesday, the Democrat said today's mass attendance for the inauguration shows that Obama's message was stronger than those that were dished out by the Democratic nominees who lost to President Bush.

"In my mind, I worked on the last two elections to stop the bleeding," Kneisley said. "In 2004 it was about trying to restore reputation. But now we have moved past; it is what can we do next? Before it was never about Gore or Kerry; it was about defeating Bush."

--Marc Rehmann