◼ Obama: Inauguration a chance to celebrate ‘this incredible nation’ - The Hill
“I’m delivering another speech tomorrow, so tonight I’m going to be pretty brief, because there are a limited amount of good lines and you don’t want to use them all,” Obama joked. “My main purpose tonight is just to say thank you.”
◼ Obama's Perfect Second Inauguration - Thomas Lifson/American Thinker
The real oath of office was administered yesterday, as per the Constitution of course, so the polite term for today's TV event is "ceremonial," a pleasant euphemism for "let's pretend." Today's fake taking of the oath of office by President Obama is the perfect metaphor for the Potemkin nature of his political movement. His impressive resume in 2008 was comprised of positions in which nobody could remember any particular work or accomplishments of anything useful. His astroturfing approach to politics stretches from community organizing days, bussing and scripting protestors he recruited to public meetings, to the transfiguration of his campaign organization "Obama for America" into a 401 (c)4 tax exempt political pressure group to gin up media events and stage manage public pressure with plenty of help from his friends in the media.
Fake, fake, fake.
Maybe the general public is really as excited about today's festivities as the cable news coverage would suggest, but somehow I doubt it.
◼ Obama's Speech to Stress Founding Values - Alexis Simendinger/Real Clear Politics
Monday’s inaugural speech won’t be quite as declarative about being a repairer of the breach, to borrow a biblical allusion President Clinton included in his first inaugural address. Election results, no matter how decisive, do not by themselves settle Washington’s “worn-out” politics, and President Obama has become Exhibit A....
With his left hand on two bibles, one used by Abraham Lincoln and the other by the Rev. King, Obama will present himself as both a unifying force and a combative warrior for American ideals embedded in his second-term agenda.
◼ Why nothing the president says matters anymore - Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post
The ennui that hangs over the second inauguration of President Obama like a thick blanket of fog is not simply a function of Republican weariness and wariness after four years of fights with the president. Democrats too are less than thrilled on this august occasion.
As my colleague Dana Milbank put it, Obama’s agenda looks “little.” The certitude that he will accomplish significant things is nowhere to be found. Those who made the case for his reelection seem almost wistful. The Post editorial board writes, “We hope, given the opportunity, he will rededicate himself to being a president who is bigger than party and above partisan squabbling.” But we’ve seen too much of the president and watched him in operation long enough to sense that isn’t going to happen.
It turns out it is harder than one suspects to pivot away from an empty campaign entirely devoted to character assassination of the opposition. Once lost, it becomes difficult to regain the high ground and concoct a mandate for much of anything. (Obama sure didn’t run on gun bans.) He didn’t bother in his reelection campaign to lay out any sort of growth agenda to ignite the still lethargic economy nor on any specific entitlement reform approach. His solution to almost any issue is to spend more money and tax someone else. He ran on nastiness and demonization; for once he is governing just as he campaigned.... MORE, at the link.
◼ President Obama’s second inaugural address (Transcript) - Washington Post
◼ One link with transcript, video and analysis of Obama's inaugural address - Washington Post
◼ Krauthammer on inaugural address: It was an ode to big government declaring the end of Reaganism - The Right Scoop
DRUDGE HEADLINES: 'A CHANCE TO FINISH WHAT WE STARTED'
◼ Obama tweets 'Let's go -- bo': from church! - Bloomberg
Calls for 'collective action'
◼ Vows action on 'climate change' - Politico
◼ Protesters target banks - Andrea Noble/Washington Times
D.C. police report first incidents tied to inauguration: Protesters smashed windows at two banks and a Hooters restaurant early Monday near Chinatown in Northwest Washington, marking the first violent civil disturbances reported amid inauguration events, according to the Metropolitan Police Department.◼ Paul Ryan Booed at President Barack Obama's Second Inauguration today in Washington, D.C. - Daniel Halper/Weekly Standard
A group of 50 to 60 protesters was making its way down Seventh Street Northwest around midnight Monday when several members of the group destroyed property at two banks and a restaurant.
The screen of an ATM machine for the DVA Federal Credit Union at 801 I St. NW was smashed by protesters, as was the front window of the nearby M&T Bank, said Officer Araz Alali, MPD spokesman. Yellow paint also was thrown on the M&T Bank.
The group then descended on the Chinatown Hooters and smashed a front window, Officer Alali said.
“Anti-government and anti-police” literature was left at one of the crime scenes, Officer Alali said.
◼ Broken Jumbotron frustrates thousands on the National Mall - The Hill
A television set up just north of the Washington Monument was streaming terribly, sending a garbled signal — both audial and visual — that left observers west of 15th Street having to guess half of what Obama was saying...."This is terrible," grumbled one man, joined by his family, who did not want to be identified.◼ GALLUP: Obama's 1st-Term Approval Rating Among Lowest of Post-WWII Presidents
◼ Only Carter, Ford Fared Worse - CNS
◼ Unemployment Rate Same Today As It Was When Obama First Took Office - CBS DC
◼ FIRST TERM: Obama Increased Debt $50,521 Per Household; More Than First 42 Presidents -- Combined! - CNS
◼ Americans 'Not in Labor Force' Increased 8,332,000 - CNS
◼ GALLON OF GAS: 1/20/09 -- $1.84; 1/21/13 -- $3.26 - GasBuddy
LET'S MOVE: Inaugural lunch tops 3,000 calories...
