Like the election itself, Inauguration Day on January 20, 2009, will surely be of historic proportions. And people are already campaigning for tickets to see President-elect Barack Obama take his oath.
Yes, to be there in person, you'll need tickets. Officials expect 240,000 of them will be printed. They've put a cap on the amount of people who can attend for two reasons: crowd control and - more importantly - security.
The good news is that the tickets are free. The bad news is that you might have to run a grassroots campaign to get your hands on them. O.K., maybe that's a little drastic. But it's going to be up to them to decide who gets the tickets.
Congressman John Larson's (D-CT) office has already been swamped with calls from people looking for tickets. His staff will graciously take your call, thank you for helping re-elect Larson, then tell you to get in line. Chances are there will be many, many more requests than there are tickets. Larson's office is keeping a list of everyone who requests tickets, and will decide in January who gets them.
Your best bet? Don't just call one lawmaker, try them all. Click here to find contact information for your representatives.
Wednesday morning, websites were already buying and selling tickets to the inauguration. One site, greatseats.com, calls itself your "inside the Beltway broker", and has tickets going for up to $15,675.00. Of course you can't just buy one -- the expensive seats have to be purchased in pairs.
Let's say you get the tickets. If it didn't cost you an arm and a leg to get into the ceremony, it sure will to travel and stay there. Washington.org, the official tourism site of Washington, D.C. is offering feature "package deals". The only "deal" we found is you give them lots of money, and they'll let you have a room. Chances are the prices are only going to jump -- so if you're sure you're going -- you may want to plan on booking early.
Of course you can always save the cash and watch the inauguration on NBC. That's where we'll be.
