Wow! that was one great speech. Worth watching. Twice.
Barack Obama 2013 Inauguration Speech
TheNewYorkTimes -- link
Here are some "signposts" that jumped out at me, among many noteworthy destinations.
President Obama’s second inaugural address (Transcript)
washingtonpost.com
President Obama’s second inaugural address, delivered on Jan. 21, 2013.
[...]
An economic recovery has begun. America’s possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive; diversity and openness; an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention. My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together.
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 believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work, when the wages of honest labor will liberate families from the brink of hardship.
[...]
The commitments we make to each other through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, these things do not sap our initiative. They strengthen us.
They do not make us a nation of takers. They free us to take the risks that make this country great.
We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.
Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms. The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But American cannot resist this transition. We must lead it.
We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries. We must claim its promise. That’s how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure, our forests and waterways, our crop lands and snow capped peaks. That is how we will preserve our planet, commanded to our care by God. That’s what will lend meaning to the creed our fathers once declared.
[...]
Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.
[...]
Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life. It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness.
Progress does not compel us to settle century’s long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.
On Fox News they're calling this speech
Obama's Libral Agenda. That, he did on reach out to the other side at all. They are crying in their Cheerios, that Obama did not throw them a bone. Nor an olive branch, either.
Waannh.
News Flash for the Fox club: Obama WON! Twice!
Get used to it!
Maybe this time you won't STONEWALL absolutely everything he does. Dems Won!
-- despite the systematic Obstruction that IS the Republican Party.