'I Want to Take a Look One More Time. I'm Not Going to See this Again.' Neither Will I...

"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber," it is believed to have been said by Greek philosopher Plato more than 2000 years ago. He truly was a genius to have foreseen the world of politics we live in today. I write a lot, as my profession requires, and I have strong views on things, which my blogs afford me the opportunity to express. And while I cover politics among the many different topics I write about, I don't engage in political rhetoric, nor do I challenge others on their political views (I'm not FOX News or MSNBC). Yet, I'm more intrigued by politics today than ever.

I've long been a news junkie, since I became engrossed in my courses at the J-School at the University of South Carolina more than a decade ago. But it was when I began covering the 2012 Democratic National Convention that my interest in politics reached new heights. As you might have seen me reference before, I wrote "The DNC In The CLT" blog for Charlotte magazine for an entire year, from September 2011 to September 2012. It was a tremendous experience for the city of Charlotte to host the DNC, as well as for us local journalists who jumped at every press release and announcement from the Democratic National Convention Committee, which was comprised of  a couple hundred staffers, many of whom had relocated to Charlotte from other parts of the country and lived here for more than a year, and from the Charlotte in 2012 Convention Host Committee, which were the mostly-local officials. All things considered, they put on a great convention (my recap), regardless of whether you supported their renomination of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

President Obama being sworn in Monday at the inauguration. Credit: facebook.com/barackobama

Over the last few weeks, I received daily emailed press releases from the press office of the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, just as I had for months from the DNCC and Charlotte in 2012. It made me miss those days of Charlotte being a pivotal part of the national political landscape. Reading the PIC announcements of committee co-chairs, guest speakers and performers, special events, parties, and galas, and high-profile politician and celebrity attendance (including many who came to Charlotte for the DNC), only reminded me how special an opportunity it was for Charlotte to have played a central role in the presidential election process.

The way I see it, there were three key components of the 2012 election, in terms of milestone events: the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte in September (and Republican National Convention in Tampa in August), the presidential election in November, and this week's 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C.

I feel about the entire 2012 election cycle the way President Obama felt about the inauguration:

"I want to take a look one more time. I'm not going to see this again."—The President pausing at the Capitol yesterday twitter.com/BarackObama/st…
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 22, 2013