President-Elect Barack Obama arrived in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, which was the first step in what is likely to be one of the most historic inaugural events in American history.

The Obamas arrived Saturday and took up residence at the Hay-Adams Hotel, right across Lafayette Park from the White House, which was caught better than any news footage I saw by a tourist with a video camera and posted quickly online.

So begins the YouTube Presidency.

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Today, most companies in the tech and Internet sector will close the books on what is likely to be a very disappointing fourth quarter and also close out what has turned out to be a mucho depressing year, which got hammered starting in the third.

While financial results will not out for some weeks, one does not have to be a psychic to know what’s coming: A lot of weakness, with hopes for better days ahead.

It’s a far cry from how 2008 started out, with high valuations for all. Those were the days my friend, Silicon Valley thought they’d never end, to sing and dance forever and a day. As it turned out, it was more of a swan song for Web 2.0.

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In an article in The Wall Street Journal today comes the news that “President-elect Barack Obama’s call to improve the nation’s broadband infrastructure has cable and phone company lobbyists maneuvering to get a leg up.”

To BoomTown, this is akin to Scrooge making his overnight transformation, except without any soul, sincerity or true intent to actually care about the consumer.

God help us, everyone.

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Is it just me or does the fact that President-Elect Barack Obama is broadcasting his weekly address on YouTube not seem like it should be the very biggest deal in the world?

While it is a first for the Commander-in-Chief, I am more depressed that it is a first–after all, skateboarding cats made it to YouTube eons ago–than utterly thrilled that he is doing it.

But, when it come to the glacial movement related to politicians and tech issues, disappointment seems to be a better stance than hope.

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Both President-Elect Barack Obama and the man he beat in a historic election, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, gave the kinds of speeches at the end of the last night that make one proud to be part of a country where stark differences still mean grace can prevail when it’s all over.

But don’t take my word for it–the Internet makes it possible to consider them again and again.

They are a shining example of–as Obama quoted our greatest president (in my estimation, at least), Abraham Lincoln last night–of how such a contest should end: “We are not enemies, but friends, though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”

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In advance of tomorrow’s elections, here’s a pair of videos of the two presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, talking about tech.

While Obama has many more supporters in the tech and Internet sectors in terms of overall numbers, including Google CEO Eric Schmidt, McCain’s tech fans include Cisco CEO John Chambers, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former H-P head Carly Fiorina.

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As BoomTown has noted, one of the best things to come out of this election has been the very funny and very topical humor that has been on “Saturday Night Live” in this political cycle.

Headlined by Tina Fey’s perfect impression of Sarah Palin, it has been biting without stooping to the rank meanness from so many other places by both sides.

Last night, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain–who has been on SNL before (his “John McCain sings Streisand” skit was really a gem from that appearance)–was in two skits on the show and did a great job in both.

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Here’s an interesting video from The Vote Hour, which is trying to get CEOs to let employees take off an hour from work to vote.

But while the group is independent and bipartisan, it is also an effort that started at Google.

The video includes the search giant’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, along with a panoply of well-known execs, including a lot from tech.

Also included, apparently for comic relief, is real estate mogul Donald Trump.

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You have to admire the sledgehammer stylings of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who loves to accuse Microsoft (justifiably, I might add) of bullying lobbying tactics in our nation’s capital, in the latest moves in the regulatory fight over the controversial search ad outsourcing partnership that Yahoo and Google have struck.

Today, just days before the Justice Department will decide whether to move ahead with a lawsuit to stop the Yahoogle deal from proceeding or let it move forward with some other remedy or tweaking, Schmidt announced that he would be campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama in the last two weeks of the election.

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Is there anything comic Sarah Silverman will not say?

Apparently not, from this aggressively pro-Sen. Barack Obama video that has become a huge hit on the Web, called “The Great Schlep.”

In it, the viciously funny Silverman plans to blame–I am not kidding–old Jewish grandparents–if Democratic nominee Obama loses the Presidential election.

Thus, she plots revenge.

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Famous-for-being-famous celebrity Paris Hilton continues her comic run for “fake” President of the United States, with a new online video for the Funny or Die comedy site.

In the latest, Hilton consults the most famous of fake Presidents, actor Martin Sheen, who played President Jed Bartlett for many seasons on the NBC hit “The West Wing.”

BoomTown really misses C.J. and the rest of the team.

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We’re posting all the interviews from the sixth D: All Things Digital conference that took place in late May.

But–as many readers have requested–they will all be available in their entirety in this column.

In the less contentious spirit of DEMOfall and TechCrunch50, two demo conferences taking place simultaneously this week, we’re happy to bring you all the demos we had onstage at the D6 conference.

Next up is evri, the semantic Web guide start-up, which is backed by billionaire techie Paul Allen and founded by former Amazon exec Neil Roseman.

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In a tempest-in-a-teapot political scandalette, Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain used images of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears in a television ad attacking his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, as a celebrity.

It was tasteless and also offensive to Hilton and Spears, which seems an almost impossible task–way to go!

Now, wasting no time in taking advantage of the brouhaha and drawing attention just where it should be–to herself, of course–Hilton did this clever video spoof for the Funny or Die comedy Web site.

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So, I have been standing by, trying to make sense of the debate that has swirled around Apple CEO, Co-
Founder and font-of-all Steve Jobs with regard to his health or, more specifically, the lack thereof.

And after listening to all of the debate about it–mostly indignant declarations by the media, making their case mostly by wheedling milder indignant declarations out of stock analysts and corporate tsk-tsk outfits–I have concluded that what is ailing Jobs is exactly no one’s business.

Even if his every breath is critical to the ongoing operations of Apple, the reason most use as their main argument for Jobs to tell all, it goes double.

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Over the last two days, BoomTown has been enjoying the perfect Pacific Northwest summer weather, visiting several Seattle-based companies and also Microsoft HQ in nearby Redmond.

Seattle is still essentially Silicon Valley North, except a lot more laid back and with less of an egregiously opportunistic, what’s-the-next-hot- start-up tone one feels any day of the week in Palo Alto.

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