Time and again, a presidential inauguration has foreshadowed the Administration that followed, or has even played a role in determining its fate. The inauguration might matter more to George W. Bush than to most incoming Presidents because it can help him to become better-known to the American public. The symbolism and the ceremony of Inauguration Day lend the mantle of legitimacy to the person who is chosen to serve as the closest thing this republic has to a king. Many phrases from past inaugural addresses have made their way into Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and have accurately described the spirit of the ensuing Administration. But the predictive symbols of inaugurations go beyond the rhetorical.
Some incoming Presidents use their feet.
Andrew Jackson, the first President from the West, walked to the Capitol in 1829, with thousands of people following, to show himself as a common man. Often, an inaugural's most potent symbolism is inadvertent and showcases an aspect of the new regime that its leader would just as soon keep concealed. In 1981, Ronald Reagan meant to dramatize his conservatism by ordering a federal hiring freeze within an hour after he assumed the presidency. Bill Clinton, on Inauguration Day in 1993, divulged more than he might have meant to about his own habits of behavior when he and his wife arrived at the White House for the traditional visit with their predecessors an unmannerly 27 minutes late. His lack of self-discipline led to a disorganized White House that damaged his performance in his first term and to a humiliating impeachment that stained the presidency in his second.