Inaugural Sketchbook: Scenes From Obama's Mall

Wit took on a different air in Washington on Tuesday. When a mass of more than a million people is sharing a sense of uplift -- reveling in a rolling lovefest, actually -- the moment's unjaundiced humor can take a Washingtonian by shock.

Far from the Capitol steps, deep into the cheap "seats" of SRO (creating the surreal sensation that you're four-thousand rows back), you feel as if you're more at sporting event than swearing-in. On the mound shadowed by the Washington Monument, the giddy mood is one of a Super Bowl -- multiplied many times over.

You can take pictures, but that doesn't begin to capture the tone of the moment. So you do the only thing you can as a cartoonist: You crack a sketchbook.

Here is a handful of quickie sketches from a hill of history, based on overheard dialogue. The renderings are mine; the mood (condensed for space) of a historic "Moment" in Washington is theirs.

(Michael Cavna) Enlarge Comic

(Michael Cavna) Enlarge Comic

(Michael Cavna) Enlarge Comic

(Michael Cavna) Enlarge Comic