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The Obama Watch
Second Inaugural Blues
The next four years are going to be even longer than the last four.
Here are a few observations about President Obama’s second inaugural address and what we can expect to follow over the next four years.
To begin with, it is not only Obama’s second inaugural of the past four years, but his second inaugural in as many days. Obama, of course, was formally sworn in on Sunday at the White House. But his actual address and the pomp and circumstance associated with it was reserved for the following day. In other words, Obama just had to make Martin Luther King, Jr. Day about him. But after all this time could we really expect anything less from Obama?
The second inaugural address itself was largely full of the sort of platitudes that could have been uttered by the president of a high school student council or perhaps the President of the Harvard Law Review. But there were also segments that highlighted Obama’s socialistic beliefs:
But we have always understood that when times change, so must we; that fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges; that preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action. For the American people can no more meet the demands of today’s world by acting alone than American soldiers could have met the forces of fascism or communism with muskets and militias. No single person can train all the math and science teachers we’ll need to equip our children for the future, or build the roads and networks and research labs that will bring new jobs and businesses to our shores. Now, more than ever, we must do these things together, as one nation and one people.
In other words, you didn’t build that.
It had more than its share of straw man arguments such as when Obama said “we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.” Who exactly believes that? I suspect that if I were to pose this question to Obama he would respond by saying “the few.” That’s socialist code for the rich.
Not surprisingly, Obama spoke of “the few” a few times:
• The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob.
• For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.
• We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few.
As you can plainly see, Obama has picked his target, frozen, personalized and polarized it and isn’t about to let go. Of course, if he did his political triumphs would probably be few and far between. This is what makes Obama so dangerous.
It is also why Obama can with a straight face say, “We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit.” He didn’t make any hard choices about either during his first term. But aside from conservatives, who is going to call Obama to account? The mainstream media? Let’s not kid ourselves. As long as Obama is in office, their function is to take dictation from him. So what makes anyone think it’s going to be any different this time around?
So when Obama says we cannot “treat name-calling as reasoned debate,” just remember that exactly one week before his second inaugural address he accused Republicans of holding the economy hostage. Obama routinely used such language against Republicans throughout his first term such as when he referred to them as “hostage takers” in December 2010 during the Bush tax cut compromise negotiations. In light of the fact that three American hostages were murdered by al Qaeda linked terrorists in Algeria, it makes Obama’s use of term look childish. This is why I give about as much credence to Obama lecturing the nation on civility as I do to Lance Armstrong’s apology for using performance enhancing drugs.
Sadly, it does not surprise me that Obama would speak of responding “to the threat of climate change” while saying nothing about Islamic fundamentalist terrorism as three Americans will be coming home in body bags thanks to terrorists acting in solidarity with al Qaeda. From where Obama sits, bin Laden is dead so Algeria, Benghazi, and Fort Hood don’t matter. Islamic fundamentalist terrorism is just another “man caused disaster” that has been allocated a lower priority than climate change. It’s both a sad and dangerous state of affairs when the French take Islamic fundamentalist terrorism more seriously than the White House does.
Does anyone get the feeling that the next four years are going to be longer than the last four years? If you do, then you are feeling the second inaugural blues.
About the Author
Aaron Goldstein writes from Boston, Massachusetts.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (60) | Leave a comment
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Aristocat| 1.22.13 @ 6:46AM
We have survived wars, depressions, LBJ, Carter, and by the grace of God we will survive this demon-possessed dictator.
Robbins Mitchell| 1.22.13 @ 7:08AM
Yea,but it won't be done by just biding our time and smelling the roses..in this case is is going to necessarily mean flushing this gob of dog feces down history's political toilet
Aristocat| 1.22.13 @ 8:16AM
Absolutely, we will need to fight to survive.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:09PM
Does anyone know of one single instance of Democrats working with President Bush during his 2nd Term?
As I recall, it was Slash and Burn, Scorched Earth, Bush Sucks, and Bush is a War Criminal, throughout the entire 4 Years.
Now, explain to me, why we should work with this guy on ANYTHING.
loulou| 1.22.13 @ 1:28PM
Because Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and other RINOs say we have to.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 2:02PM
That's a reason NOT to work with him.
I'm looking for a reason TO work with him.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 2:08PM
Why would you listen to a coupla "House Negros"?
Harry Belefonte's words.
Not mine.
Oldefarte| 1.22.13 @ 4:10PM
I'll go further back in time than the Bush Administration in recalling the Kennedy/Johnson Administration [and the Warren SCOTUS] including the Mike Mansfield etc/Democrat controlled government [which politically ramrodded through The Great Society etc]. Work with him? Nah.....as Nancy Reagan said, JUST SAY NO!!!!!!
SC| 1.22.13 @ 10:31PM
BECAUSE, the Democrats worked with President Bush on a number of issues during his first Administration----REMEMBER THE WAR??--as opposed to the Repugs crowing, EVEN BEFORE the first Obama Inauguration that they WOULD NOT do ANYTHING that the new President proposed....
spike59| 1.23.13 @ 5:57AM
so....with a newly elected President who had repeatedly bleated, and ran on, a far-left agenda, the GOP was supposed to tell the people who elected THEM to just 'go f#ck yourselves?' you're forgetting that every single GOP Senator and Congressman also WON their elections, most of them handily, which gave them a mandate to follow through with the priorities and policies that they laid out for the voters in their own states and districts-this isn't a monarchy or a dictatorship just yet, dullard
John Navratil| 1.22.13 @ 8:38AM
Aristocat,
Put another way, it's only four more years until he is gone. We will survive but it will be like surviving a plane crash.
Doctor Right| 1.22.13 @ 11:05AM
Don't be so sure that these are his last 4 years, or that we'll survive.
Unless the alternative is a strong, unapologetic, Pro-American Conservative who can communicate to the public and is unafraid of the Lib-media complex and the Democrats, then the next President will likely be a socialist Obama clone.
We're not heading for the slippery-slope; we've already slid to the bottom.
RCV| 1.22.13 @ 1:24PM
The next President will likely be Mrs. Clinton, Dr. R. You're right about that.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 2:01PM
Why don't you go back to February, 2011, and see what I said about that?
Idiot.
RCV| 1.22.13 @ 5:40PM
Why would I care what you said about that?
Drunken Sailor| 1.22.13 @ 4:15PM
Seems to me Biden is looking to be your nominee.
RCV| 1.22.13 @ 5:41PM
Joe's track record of running Presidential primary campaigns is not promising.
spike59| 1.23.13 @ 5:58AM
is record of rational thought, integrity, or coherent speech isn't promising, either...but there he is, the VP
Joellen| 1.22.13 @ 7:31AM
obama did get an A in one class - the Saul Alinsky "Rules for Radicals". He truly perfected the "isolate the target" rule.
Just so you know, Perp in Paul Kengor's article of 1/21/13 at 7:34 advised me to "lay back and enjoy the rape". Nice Liberals, Nice.
Russel| 1.22.13 @ 8:25AM
I'm sorry to hear that Joellen , for what it's worth . They truly are a despicable lot . I don't read his posts , but they prove just how stoopid he truly is ; he thinks others DO read his tripe . And he keeps at it ! . Please have a GOOD day .
Von Mises Jr| 1.22.13 @ 9:56AM
Joellen, please refrain from reading the trolls posts and if you feel the need to respond, make fun of them. They truly are an ignorant bunch.
Obama is like the First Grader that won Class President over the best looking and smartest kid in the class. His campaign was "vote for me and ice cream for everyone."
Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 1:10PM
Joellen: you are a sweetie, and they are scumbags. It is the nature of things. Never, never, never surrender.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:27PM
I just heard Rush say that The Republicans are too scared to do anything.
What am I missing?
In the words of Bob Dylan: When you've got nothin. You've got nothin to lose.
Think about it. What can they possibly be afraid of? Obama? Harry Ried? The Press?
What can they do to them, that they haven't already done?
If I'm the Republicans, I take a lesson from Animal House. The Dean was out to get their Fraternity, and they knew that they had nothing to lose, so they decided to Let it all Hang Out.
Same goes now.
They have Power, and no guarantee that they'll still have it after 2014. It's time to Use It, or Lose It.
They have the Power of the Purse, and they can Shut this Guy's Plan for another Worker's Paradise, dead in its Tracks.
When William Wallace said he was gonna Invade England? He was told that it was Impossible. He replied: "Why? Why is that Impossible? You (The Republicans) are so willing to accept the scraps from Longshanks Table, that you've forgotten your God Given Right to Freedom and Liberty."
They Control the Money.
And, in that town, that means They Control Everything.
It's time to Sh*t, or get off the Pot.
While you still can.
Von Mises Jr| 1.22.13 @ 2:09PM
TLP, The GOP in DC are the landed Nobles of Scotland in Braveheart. They are not with William Wallace and the people that want to throw off the British who consecrated the Scotsman's marriage for him as privilege or slit the throat of those that resist. It is not the Noble's wives and children that were being assaulted.
Rush has not been complimentary of the GOP and if anything is less optimistic than me given my opinion we are going to face some challenges as a nation and some people's faith in Obama and Boehner are ill founded. I think it could be soon and enlightening, but Rush seems to think less of the low-information voters even than me.
Oldefarte| 1.22.13 @ 4:13PM
If they control the money [until these Democrat Domestic Terrorists have them arrested for same], then they should start throwing political hand grenades monetarily speaking and whenever possible within that process [or IOW STARVE THE BEAST]!!!!!!
mike 3/505| 1.22.13 @ 10:57PM
Did we quit when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Germans? Forget it. Tim's rolling.
Job| 1.22.13 @ 5:00PM
i say this sadly because i fear what comes next but experience has taught me when someone is looking for "an ass to kick" or "someone to rape" the time for tactics like managing a budget and debating is already over.
Jack London| 1.22.13 @ 8:07AM
Obama has pursued Al Queda with rigor - such as with all those drone attacks. So this is just BS from Goldstein, as his assertion that the GOP hasn't played stupid games with the economy. Remember that the GOP started his first term with a commitment not to cooperate, therefore sacrificing any pretence to govern responsibly.
Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 1:09PM
Yup---he did so well our ambassador was raped and killed.
We need HUMINT, as well, and Obama has done very poorly on that. Ah, well, who knows better than Jack London about THE IRON HEEL that is about to descend upon us.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:43PM
You spelled Gummint wrong.
mike 3/505| 1.22.13 @ 10:57PM
Gubmint.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:42PM
Stupid Games with the Economy?
Like the $900 Billion pissed away on Shovel Ready Jobs that never existed?
Like all of the Money pissed away on Green Energy "Front Companies" owned by some of his Biggest Contributors, that all went Belly Up?
Like the Million$ he gave to Fisker: A Norwegian Car Company?
Like Trillion $ Defecits, as far as the eye can see?
Like $6 Trillion in New Debt, with no end in sight?
Like the Simpson/Bowles Debt Reduction Committee, that he came up with, and that he completely Ignored?
Like his Jobs Commission that he's NEVER met with, since its inception?
Like his Cancellation of the XL Pipeline?
Like his Illegal Drilling Moratorium?
Like his Closings of numerous Coal Fired Plants?
Like his Thousands of Job Killing Regulations, and his Boot on the Throat of Industry EPA?
Like his Trillions of Dollars in New Taxes on Everybody?
Please enlighten us with your usual Sack a Sh*t B*llsh*t.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 3:45PM
What happened to Jackass from London?
Cat got you tongue?
spike59| 1.23.13 @ 5:59AM
he saw 'facts', soiled his diaper, and ran away
Oldefarte| 1.22.13 @ 4:17PM
In comparison to the inflation applied dollars spent on The Great Society of Kennedy/Johnson, your above may prove to be monetary peanuts [but in combination with that of the next four years, who knows]??????
Hardcard| 1.22.13 @ 8:40AM
soros
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:43PM
WINNER!
Robbins Mitchell| 1.22.13 @ 8:44AM
When Barokeydoke first took office,his attitude toward the GOP was "I won...deal with it"....and given the disastrous economic consequences of his policies so far,the GOP was morally and intellectually correct not to cooperate in America's slow fiscal demise...particularly since the boy still believes we "don't have a spending problem"
Bob Grant| 1.22.13 @ 8:56AM
What's more sickening? The president placing his hand on the Bible taking the oath of office for a second term, OR, the back of John Roberts, who TURNED HIS BACK ON THE CONSTITUTION (and the American People) by facilitating obama's path to America's destruction?
John Roberts could have constrained this man last summer? ...Always remember this!
c. j. acworth| 1.22.13 @ 8:57AM
"...we must make the hard chioices to reduce the cost of health care..."
Wait a minute, didn't we do that? I thought that's what Obamacare was all about? Is he admitting that we have still not dealt with that particular problem? I can't wait to see his next prescription. (Don't tell me. Single-payer.)
Anthony| 1.22.13 @ 9:52AM
Classic Alinsky tactic, right out of Rules for Radicals, by Obozo. Using the words of our Founders and Constitution in an Orwellian attempt to thwart the very concepts of our Founders and the Constitution.
A long four years you say Aaron? Perhaps, however, I suspect things are going to heat up rather soon.
Von Mises Jr| 1.22.13 @ 10:02AM
I seriously doubt that Obama is that bright to use the ideas of our Founding out of context. He does not understand them and is completely brainwashed by his handlers. He is simply a "Useful Idiot."
If he must speak without the Teleprompter-in-Chief, after he hems and haws, looks like a deer in the headlights stumbling with umm, ah, umm, he invariably says something completely stupid.
Doctor Right| 1.22.13 @ 11:08AM
I used to think he was a useful idiot, too, but now I'm not so sure.
No, he's not a genius. But he has a plan, and he's sticking to it come hell or high water. And as long as the Lib-Media complex is in the back pockets of Democrats, he can rely on promoting his agenda with minimal opposition or scrutiny.
And the public? Forget it...
Conservative commentators like to say "The Democrats think you're stupid..." Well, guess what? 50% of this country IS stupid. And that's not going to change in 4 years.
Von Mises Jr| 1.22.13 @ 12:06PM
I don't posit that he is as stupid as his base, but he is ignorant of economics and so much more. He is educable enough that he has learned all the talking points by heart, but if he strays from parroting the liberal diatribe, he cannot put two thoughts together.
Many of the dictators throughout history were extremely intelligent as they understood their opposition and could deceive them. Obama does not trick conservatives. He only tricks the liberal drones.
Rush for instance that is coming on in a few minutes understands liberals better than they do. It is not that difficult since they simply believe mantras and do not have a functioning worldview and philosophy. They do not understand Austrian Economics and the ideas of Ayn Rand the way we understand how they think or how little of it actually occurs.
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:56PM
You know that I love you, but you are totally wrong on this one.
He knows everything about the Economy, which is why he's so adept at Killing It.
He's a Constitutional Scholar. That's why he's so good at Wiping His Ass with it.
Think about the Movie PATTON, and what George C. Scott said, as he was pounding Rommel's Tanks. "You Magnificent Bastard. I READ YOUR BOOK!"
In the HBO Series: Spartacus: Spartacus tells his men that he won't make the same mistake that the Romans always do, in UNDERESTIMATING THEIR ENEMIES.
He's not Stupid.
He's not Ill-informed.
He knows his Opponents, and how to take advantage of their Weaknesses.
See what he has accomplished in 4 Short Years.
He knows exactly what he's doing.
We underestimate him, at our own Peril.
Oldefarte| 1.22.13 @ 4:20PM
He relies on our collective applications of the Gumpism of STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES [and boy did we do-it on 11/4/08 and 11/6/12]!!!!
Petronius| 1.22.13 @ 10:59AM
Our Constitution was shredded a century ago. He just said, "I told you so."
Gregory | 1.22.13 @ 11:38AM
Here are quotes from Adolph Hitler that could easily fit into the president's address:
"All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people."
"By the skillful and sustained use of propaganda, one can make a people see even heaven as hell or an extremely wretched life as paradise... How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think...It is not truth that matters, but victory. "
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it... Great liars are also great magicians... Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it."
"He alone who owns the youth, gains the future."
From Benito Mussolini:
"The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative."
"It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity."
"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power... All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state... Inactivity is death."
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:57PM
Indeed.
Bill8472| 1.22.13 @ 1:08PM
How do we preserve invidual rights by collective action?
By having a society that is perpetually fighting the Civil Rights Movement?
Since when do we require that kind of agitation?
Other than mass demonstrations in the streets, how does a collective protect/preserve individual rights?
Of course, it doesn't; the idea that Obama was talking about is expanding the reach and power of the government. Sadly, half of us are for that.
Occam's Tool| 1.22.13 @ 1:12PM
Obama was talking his usual null semantic sense. We already know that he wants communism and the crushing of the individual spirit.
cicero| 1.22.13 @ 1:41PM
I was watching an interview with the latest Obama biographer, Maranis, last night. He went all over the world in order to find out the real story on his subject. When he got to the college years, it was a blank. All he did was show a graph indicating where he was living when. Apparently, O finished Havard Law in 2 years. They must have shortened the curriculum since I attended Detroit College of Law. After stating that he was really smart in high school, but not a "motivated" student, it was all fluff and feathers.
When are we going to get the real story on this guy? In the next four years, we can expect to see O do as much damage as he possibly can to the country. While I can understand that - on the premise that he hates the U. S. because of his background, I cannot understand the entire Democrat Party following him with such reckless abandon. Am I missing something?
TLP| 1.22.13 @ 1:59PM
"Am I missing something?"
Yes.
Revelation.
Drunken Sailor| 1.22.13 @ 2:07PM
Does this help?
In 1972, Gus Hall, then leader of the Communist Party USA, wrote in his book, "A Lame Duck in Turbulent Waters," describing what had been the long-time party policy:[10]
Our electoral policy has for 25 years been expressed in the phrase, 'the three legs of a stool'....The stool was constructed at a time when the Party was under sharp attack....a reflection of the Party's response to the difficulties.
The flexibility was contained in the idea that no one leg of the stool was the main leg. Depending on the political pressures, one could choose a particular leg or legs. In fact the concept was built on the idea that when the other two legs, namely, the Communist Party and the forces of political independence, got strong enough, then and only then would the stool sit on three legs. But until that day comes the one operating leg would be the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
Drunken Sailor| 1.22.13 @ 2:12PM
Should the party strive to play a leading role helping those forces gain and consolidate new positions of strength, even inside the Democratic Party or shouldn't it?, I think it should.
Charlene Mitchell, then Executive Director of the African-American Commission of the Communist Party USA, wrote in the Peoples Daily World June 9, 1983:
In 2010, in a report prepared for the Communist Party 29th National Convention, several members of the Young Communist League USA wrote;[13]
Currently, the conditions rarely if ever allow us to run open Communists for office. When members do run for office, it is within the auspices of the Democratic Party. Otherwise, we find ourselves supporting progressive (and in some instances not-so-progressive) Democratic candidates. Despite how much many of us would love to run comrades for office as Communists, we all agree that this is how we currently have to function in this political climate.
Drunken Sailor| 1.22.13 @ 2:12PM
A report praising Barack Obama, and the changes wrought by him, was delivered at the 14th International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties, held in Beirut, Lebanon, November 22-25, by Erwin Marquit, member of the International Department, CPUSA.[14]
We express our gratitude to the Lebanese Communist Party for hosting this important meeting under the present difficult conditions.
The Communist Party USA not only welcomes the reelection of President Barack Obama, but actively engaged in the electoral campaign for his reelection and for the election of many Democratic Party congressional candidates. We regarded the 2012 election as the most important in the United States since 1932, an election held in the midst of the Great Depression.
and the list goes on and on.
cicero| 1.22.13 @ 2:19PM
My question was retorical and sarcastic. The Democrat party is onlhy interested in winning, and staying in power - like all socialistic organizations. If they can stay in power long enough, and remain in control of the moniey and wealth of the society, they will be just fine. Stalin never missed a meal. Mao lived high on the hog while his people were starving to death. Castro still lives well, while Cuba sinks into the sea. Our Dems don't care what happens to the country, or the fools that vote for them, as they will come out of the disaster just fine - or so they think.
Drunken Sailor| 1.22.13 @ 2:45PM
I stand corrected. We really need a sarcastic Font.
pigdog| 1.22.13 @ 9:56PM
re "three American hostages were murdered by al Qaeda linked terrorists in Algeria, it makes Obama’s use of term [hostage] look childish. "
Please don't jump to conclusions about Algeria, Mr. Goldstein. Shortly after after the Fort Hood disaster, President Obama advised: "We don't know all of the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all of the facts."
Time has proven President Obama's instincts to be correct. Fort Hood was a horrific case of work place violence, and Algeria looks to be same.
President Obama may as well blame Canada, as others blame Al Qaida, for the work place disaster in Algeria.