Air Force Staff Sgt. Serpico Elliott and Army Specialist Delandra Rollins stand in for President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as they participate in a swearing in rehearsal for the presidential inauguration.
Gone also are the big-name supporters who chipped in checks up to the $50,000 limit in 2009, which included Hollywood heavyweights such as Steven Spielberg, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, and Sean Combs, as well as finance titans like George Soros, according to the Boston Globe.
[PHOTOS: Behind the Scenes of Inaugural Preparations]
The mega-donors that helped Obama's re-election campaign raise more than $1 billion are also noticeably absent from the list of inaugural donors, causing tension between top donors and the administration, according to the New York Times.
In hopes of luring big checks, the committee has issued $1 million donation appeals and offered deluxe VIP packages named after Founding Fathers that include hard-to-get seats and tickets.
The diminished enthusisasm could be in part due to the nature of inaugural repeats.
"Second inaugurals are often a kind of victory lap speech in a lot of ways, that would go back to Thomas Jefferson in 1805," presidential historian Leo Ribuffo of George Washington University told the Washington Post. "Presidents are often reflecting on accomplishments of the administration and the challenges that will continue into the second term."
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