Rick Kriseman - Swearing in or Coronation

 St. Petersburg, Fl
Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD
Author: In Search of Robin, So You Want to Blog

It was a big crowd of well-wishing Democrats that came to kick off Rick Kriseman's next four years as St. Pete Mayor. It was cold and windy, there were free coffee and pastries usually enough to bring out at least a few Republicans, but partisanship was in the air along with the cold wind. 

There were horns announcing the moment....

A crowd was gahtering.....

Dignitaries were present.....

An appropriate master of ceremonies stepped to the microphone.....  

The crowd grew larger.....










There was a Preacher - a bit long winded.....

The Color Guard arrived on cue..... 

                                                                                                                                                         







The colors were preasented..











The National Anthem was sung.....










The Judge was ready.....

The entourage stood dutifully by.....

The processional began.....

The swearing in commenced

The entourage looked on approvingly.....

The Mayor spoke with exuberance and great generality.....

It was over, and the entourage applauded approvingly giving thanks they are employed for four more years.....

Kriseman's narrow win over Rick Baker is hardly a mandate, but I suspect the second term Mayor will treat it as such.

It still amazes me how a politician who ignored the will of the people spending millions of dollars on Pier nobody wanted, pushed through a multimillion dollar park at sea level, dumped millions of gallons of waste into the bay and the repeatedly lied about it managed to squeak out a victory.

I guess it really doesn’t matter now he is the Mayor. He has a city council stoked with party faithful, so the onus is on the Democrats to lead St. Pete through the next four years of complex and challenging issues.

The whole mayoral portion of the event did have a bit of small town regal feel about it but all in all it was a cold day which was probably what Rick Baker was thinking.

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