"He was never going to have a Soul Train Line on Pennsylvania Avenue"

Obama-watchers expect a nod to the civil rights movement in the speech, but not much more, anticipating that the new president will allow the participation of major African-American figures such as Lowery and Aretha Franklin to speak to that aspect of the day.

“Those of us who will have the job making an analysis of this will spend most of our time with the question, ‘What does it mean to have a black president?’” says Ronald Walters, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland. “But I don’t think [Obama is] going to spend much time on it at all.”