The Administration

The Hill's A.B. Stoddard sits down with columnists John Feehery and Peter Fenn to look ahead at President Obama's second term.

President Obama's inaugural address was a fine speech that ignored the most important political issue that will define the next four years of his presidency, which is how to govern in a town of divided government in which the other party is mostly hostile to his presidency and overly influenced by factions that detest the very notion of his presidency. The inaugural address was a hybrid combination of the remnants of a campaign speech, with a bow to the liberal base, and the rhetorical portions of a State of the Union address, minus the policy specifics. Totally ignored was the subject of how this Democratic president will govern with the current Republicans in Congress, a subject that will hopefully be addressed in the State of the Union.

The new TV ad from the NRA proves they have gone off the deep end.
 
They attack President Obama and his children. They intersperse images of guns as they refer to the protection that the president’s daughters receive. They call the president an “elitist hypocrite.”
 
Sick. Disgusting. Repugnant. Terrifying. All words used on “Morning Joe” to describe the ad and the NRA.
 
Watch the ad. Judge for yourself. Can anyone in his or her right mind justify a spot like this?

After President Obama got finished attacking the First Amendment, he’s now on to the Second.

As Mitt Romney predicted during his presidential campaign against this president, Obama might have more “flexibility” in a second term when it comes to deals with Russian dictators, but he will have less need for it when it comes to dealing with people in his own country who don’t happen to share his views. Romney predicted, correctly, that, while Obama was accountable to the people, he would not go after people’s legal guns. But once he’s a lame duck — what a surprise — he attacks our Second Amendment rights.

How about we keep the president's daughters and apps that tell the kiddies to play at shooting people out of this?

Good grief. Even by the low standards of modern discourse, some folks do find ways to sink to new lows.

Our president has unilaterally decided that he can rearrange the separation of powers, by simply ignoring the powers and authority of the legislative and judicial branch of our government.

This would normally be impossible, because the outcry would be tremendous. However, in the case of Emperor Obama, anything that he decides to do is sanctioned by the left-wing media, who are supposed to be the watchdogs of a free society. Instead, they have become the lapdogs of an impending dictatorship.

Yesterday during Obama's press conference he once again threw down the gauntlet to Republicans, emphasizing that, during the debt-ceiling debate, spending cuts were not going to be addressed. He also made it clear that if the Republicans tried making cuts an issue, they would be responsible for veterans and Social Security recipients not getting their checks, and more financial turmoil.

As with the fiscal-cliff debate, Obama is hoping that the Republicans will be frightened into submission and they will forget the fact that he also bears responsibility for any fiscal consequences that will probably ensue. Because of the allegiance of the mainstream media to the president, he feels he can always set the agenda and control the narrative; therefore, veracity is not necessary.

It now appears likely that President Obama will name White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to become the next Treasury secretary. Lew would be an excellent choice. His selection for Treasury would mean that President Obama would name a new chief of staff, and there is no better person in America for the post than Air Force veteran and former congressman, senator and Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.).

There are no greater witnesses to the excellence of President Obama's choice to be secretary of Defense, former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), whom I applauded in a recent column, than the strong support Hagel is receiving from a long list of national security leaders who served under President Reagan. Reagan always believed, as Hagel does, that while military force is sometimes needed, the best course for the U.S. is to seek diplomatic solutions that avoid large-scale combat missions when possible. It is Chuck Hagel who is most in line with the Reagan worldview and the Republican and bipartisan traditions of American security policy, not his critics on the right.

A brief note here to express my enthusiasm, excitement and strong support for the nomination of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to be secretary of State.

I consider myself a good friend, big fan and on many occasions a collaborator with Sen. Kerry, who I believe has the potential to be a brilliant secretary of State in the tradition of George Marshall, who also combined diplomatic and military skills. I strongly defended United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice from attacks on Benghazi that I believed were unfair to her and believe she has a future as brilliant as Secretary of State-designate Kerry.