"Let's listen in now to the Marine Corps Band," the CNN commentator says. The camera pans across the Washington Mall. People, as far as the eye can see, waiting for the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States of America, the first African American to ever hold this high office.

The music projects a holy canopy of sound over these proceedings. "Democracy's most sacred moment," the CNN commentator calls it.

George W. Bush appears through an arch of velvet curtains, waving, smiling, his last presidential appearance. The signal is given. The Marine Corps Band bursts into "Hail to the Chief." The musicians know it cold, having played it a thousand times before.

"This is the last time George W. Bush will hear ‘Hail to the Chief' being played for him," the CNN commentator intones as the president descends red-carpeted stairs, making his way to his seat of honour. "The next time you hear it, in just a few moments, it'll be for his successor, President Obama, who will then hear it for the first time being played for him."

It strikes me with the force of a physical blow: Tom, you used to play "Hail to the Chief" all the time. You were a member of the Marine Corps Band.