The Administration

Second inaugural addresses like second honeymoons typically lack the pizazz of the first go-round. There hasn’t been a memorable second address since Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s second inauguration in 1937. Even the great communicator Ronald Reagan delivered a pedestrian second inaugural address.
Expectations for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration were not as sky-high as they were four years ago. This time, however, President Obama far exceeded expectations. He may not have delivered a speech for the ages. But he gave a powerful address that laid a foundation for his second term in office.

The goal of equal opportunity was a predominant theme of President Obama's second inaugural address at the Capitol yesterday. As in his first inaugural four years ago, the president harkened back to "the ideals of our forbearers," with particular reference to the unalienable rights cited in the Declaration of Independence. The allegiance to such ideals, he said, is what "makes us exceptional."

Noting that the patriots of 1776 "did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few," he asserted that "the most evident of truths -- that all of us are created equal--is the star guides us still." 

President Obama’s second term has started. History does not hold out much hope of a bold and triumphant second term and most forecasts aren’t very positive, but Obama could defy expectations and historical precedents.

The re-election of an incumbent president is not a given. Including Obama, just 17 out of 44 U.S. presidents have been returned to office and no more than 13 were head of state for all of eight years.

On Inauguration Day 2009, Barak Obama was sworn in as America’s first black president. An estimated 1.8 million people came to Washington to be part of that profound historical event. Even with the economy sinking, the streets of the capital were joyous and exciting.

This Inauguration Day promises to be different, with a substantially smaller crowd of 600,000 to 800,000 expected. In 2009, there were 10 official inaugural balls, compared to two this year. They will both be in the Washington Convention Center: one for the public and guests, the other primarily for military families and veterans. This will be the smallest number of inaugural balls held for any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower. Read more...

Thousands of Americans will attend President Obama’s inauguration, parade, and the whirlwind of balls and social events that follow. Millions more will hear about the ceremony and festivities through snippets of media play and hours of ensuing commentary.

But all this attention prompts a blunt question: What’s the point of the inauguration?

The query is a little more pointed this year since the president will have already have taken his oath of office. The Constitution specifies that a president’s term begins on January 20th, but since that’s a Sunday (and, for many, a proverbial day of rest), Mr. Obama will recite his oath for a symbolic second time on Monday, when the nation’s capitol has set aside a full day for pageantry and celebration.

It’s a New Year but it’s déjà vu at the White House. We saw it before during the Bush-Cheney administration: President Bush infamously tried to undermine legislation by signing it with one hand while using the other to assert he could interpret the law as he pleased. Some of us decried Bush’s attempts to have the seemingly boundless powers of a unitary executive. Some even called it an “Imperial Presidency.” This month, President Obama invited similar outrage when he signed the defense authorization bill.

As a member of Congress, I took an oath to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. I did not swear to uphold only the sections I liked. The Bill of Rights contain civil liberties so fundamentally important that no matter how unpopular at times, these rights are guaranteed and no president, no Congress and no person can deprive them from us. The Second Amendment, hated by some, is a fundamental right as well. I, and millions of others, see the wisdom of the Second Amendment even as many do not. But whether you see its wisdom, all public officials were sworn to uphold it.

And this is where I part ways with the president. On Wednesday, President Obama sought to undermine constitutional guarantees when he unveiled 23 measures, in a combination of executive orders and proposed new legislation, to restrict gun ownership.

I recently wrote an op-ed here on The Hill's Congress Blog which focused on actions the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) may undertake in the coming weeks and months, including “try[ing] to undermine the secret ballot, a core element of workplace democracy, and provid[ing] union bosses with access to proprietary employee contact information.”
 
In response, John Logan, a professor and director of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University wrote a highly critical and rather hyperbolic op-ed. According to Logan, “far-right obstructionism from the GOP Congress and anti-union organizations such as the Workplace Fairness Institute has undermined the board’s efforts to protect workers’ rights and restore a modicum of balance to our labor policy.”

In recent years, Congress has greatly curbed monetary pork, notably earmarks. For example, after reforms were instituted to make earmarks more transparent, their number in legislation decreased from 13,997 (worth $27 billion) in 2005 to 2,658 (worth $13 billion) in 2007. But in-kind pork, such as presidential inaugural tickets, continues to thrive.

In the Seinfeld episode, “Bizarro Jerry” Elaine befriends a group of normal, outgoing friends who physically resemble George, Jerry, and Kramer, but treat her exactly opposite. This is where Jerry informs her that in the Bizarro World, up is down, down is up, and people say hello when they leave, and goodbye when they arrive.
 
On January 1, headlines announcing that a Fiscal Cliff deal had been struck thanks in part to the handy work of Vice President Biden’s eleventh hour heroics were not only surprising, but left some thinking they have entered the realm of the backward.