Get News & Views Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Obama Readies Call for Service, Unity
WASHINGTON - Against an emotional backdrop of high promise, deep despair, and extraordinary expectations, Barack Obama will become the nation's 44th president today, completing his historic quest for the White House and beginning the daunting task of leading a nation wounded by wars abroad and economic crisis at home.
The stage is set in front of the Capitol, where Barack Obama will be sworn in today as the 44th president. Up to 2 million people are expected in Washington for the ceremony and festivities. (Alex Wong/ Getty Images) On the eve of his inauguration, Obama spent the day doing what he is encouraging all Americans to do: national service.
In the morning, the president-elect made an unscheduled stop at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to visit with 14 veterans injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later, he toured a Capitol Hill shelter for homeless and runaway teens, chatting with volunteers and helping paint walls, and then continued to a local high school to greet more than 300 volunteers sending letters and video messages of support to troops overseas.
And while hundreds of thousands of supporters thronged Washington on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to celebrate the swearing-in of the country's first African-American president, Obama kept the day's focus not on the racial breakthrough of his election, but on King's dedication to service.
"Everybody can be great because everybody can serve," Obama said, quoting the slain civil rights leader as he rolled Laguna blue paint on the walls of Sasha Bruce House.
While his administration intends to work hard to help Americans in need, Obama said, "Don't underestimate the power for people to pull together and to accomplish amazing things."
"These young people have huge potential that right now is not being tapped, and given the crisis that we're in and the hardships that so many people are going through, we can't allow any idle hands," he added. "Everybody's got to be involved. Everybody's going to have to pitch in, and I think the American people are ready for that."
Obama is expected to make public service and sacrifice a strong theme of his inaugural address just after noon today, calling on all Americans to work to solve the nation's problems. Yesterday, thousands of people around the country heeded Obama's call for a day of service.
"I can't do it by myself. Michelle can't do it by herself. Government can only do so much," Obama told military families, students, and other volunteers at Calvin Coolidge High School in northwest Washington.
Despite Obama's sober tone, Washington was giddy with excitement yesterday. Obama supporters of all races celebrated the extraordinary success of a 47-year-old man born to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya he barely knew, who after just three years in the US Senate sounded themes of hope and change to defeat well-funded opponents and capture the presidency.
Crowds braved the cold and some rare snow to wander about the National Mall, waving mittened hands at TV cameras in jubilation. The Washington mass transit system sold fare cards with an image of Obama's face on them, and local shopkeepers in this heavily Democratic city taped Obama signs to their windows.
Security was tightening as Washington readied for an expected crowd of at least 1 million - and perhaps 2 million - on the Mall and along the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route today. Bridges connecting the capital and Virginia will be closed, and some 3.5 square miles of downtown Washington will be off-limits to traffic.
Parties began over the weekend and will culminate in a series of 10 official inaugural balls and numerous unofficial fetes tonight.
"A lot of people in this country see Barack Obama as the embodiment of their dream," said Jim Demers, a Manchester, N.H.-based political activist who was an early Obama supporter and traveled to Washington for the victory celebrations and inauguration.
"This was a guy who wasn't supposed to win. He wasn't supposed to win the nomination, let alone the presidency. He shattered a big glass ceiling. It truly does give them hope and desire to pursue their dreams as well," Demers said.
Obama begins his term with a long list of national troubles to address: an economic recession, massive home foreclosures, high unemployment, two wars, a healthcare crisis, and a damaged US image abroad - any one of which could derail his presidency in the first year.
But Obama also starts with a deep reservoir of good will among the public and elected officials in both parties. Recent polls have found that Obama is the most popular incoming president in a generation, with 80 percent of Americans in a Washington Post-ABC News poll released Sunday saying they approved of the way Obama handled the transition. Further, 71 percent said Obama had earned a mandate to work for major new social and economic programs.
"These are happy times for our politics, but a very tough time for the country," said Simon Rosenberg, president of NDN, a progressive think tank. "There's both tremendous hope and a great deal of sobriety. People are having both of these feelings at the same time."
Republicans and conservatives, too, are feeling the love for the incoming commander-in-chief - or are at least giving him a chance. Obama has already courted his political skeptics, dining with conservative commentators last week and attending three bipartisan dinners last night, which separately honored former secretary of state Colin Powell, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and defeated GOP presidential candidate John McCain.
Calling McCain an "American hero" who understands the need for "common purpose and common effort," Obama called his former rival onto the stage to urge a new era of bipartisanship, "for it is the only way we can meet the very big and very serious challenges that we face right now."
Unlike President Bush and former President Clinton - both of whom started their terms in office facing solid groups of opponents hoping they would fail - Obama "has got people who want him to do well on both sides of the aisle," said Representative Louie Gohmert, an East Texas Republican whose district went heavily for McCain.
And although Gohmert didn't support Obama, he said the incoming Democratic president is "a gifted orator" and therefore has the capacity to spur the economy by instilling confidence among consumers.
Capitol Hill Republicans have avoided directly criticizing Obama, saving their partisan attacks for Democratic congressional leaders. Instead, GOP lawmakers have praised Obama for meeting with them this month and listening to their concerns on his economic recovery plan.
Today's inaugural address - which Obama wrote himself and is expected to clock in under 20 minutes - provides a crucial forum for Obama to ask Americans to set aside their differences as well, pulling together to repair the country's wounds, said Steve Grossman, a Newton businessman and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
"Every American who is listening or paying attention [to the speech] has to feel they are personally a shareholder in this administration and in this era," Grossman said. "He has to remind people of their moral and personal obligation as Americans to rise up and give it our best. He should set very high standards for himself, and he should set very high standards for the American people."
Comments
Note: Disqus 2012 is best viewed on an up to date browser. Click here for information. Instructions for how to sign up to comment can be viewed here. Our Comment Policy can be viewed here. Please follow the guidelines. Note to Readers: Spam Filter May Capture Legitimate Comments...
12 Comments so far
Show AllLet's not go nuts. Sleeping with the enemy is not a good solution. Or giving the devil equal time. I understand the need for tolerating idiots, but throwing a nest of vipers into the mix won't help progressives. Adding anthrax, atomic bombs, pollution, overpopulation, resource depletion, global warming, species extinctions, the rapture, invasion of other countries, war profiteering, fearmongering, war mongering, Wars on Drugs and Terror, bailouts, oligarchy, theocracy, neo-cons, murderers, genocide, Zionists, Xtians, exceptionalism, disaster capitalism and other conservative ideology to the mix is counterproductive to say the least.
Conservatives have to be treated like your mother-in-law; Tolerate and even love them, but never forget that given the chance, they'll try to run your life...right into the ground.
Service is good. Sometimes the personal touch does what cannot be done on a large scale. Examples are tutoring, mentoring or acting as a docent or "grandparent". It can help kids and give meaning to retirement, for example. These things can help substitute for biological family, which in modern times can be small or dispersed. It substitutes human interaction, with all its physicality and surprise, for consumption of vicarious, pre-digested experience via TV screens or watching professional sports.
But service should not be limited to serving at a food pantry, as important as that is. It should include working to eliminate the NEED for food pantries. It should not be only about sending care packages to troops, but about bringing them home from ill-advised and dangerous missions.
Joe
Yes, Joe and your point can be extended in so many different ways. Nice symbolic gesture, that rolling Laguna blue paint on the wall of a D.C. shelter for runaway teens; but what will be his policies in reversing the "welfare reform" of the Clinton administration which has helped put so many black and other children in untenable home situations? How will his Secretary of Education, noted for closing down "under-performing" schools in poor Chicago areas, improve educational "services" to the kids in closed-down schools? "Service" is great and should be encouraged, but service begins at home with legislation and policies for the benefit of the less privileged. I had to listen all the way to that black preacher's benediction on the inauguration to hear any believable reference to the need for a focus on policies oriented as "service" to those less able to serve themselves.
I will be unified and work hard for Obama's initiatives I agree with.
But as to Obamas initiatives I disagree with, and there will no doubt be plenty, I will unite with my fellow activists in resisting Obama's initiatives and promoting our own alternatives. This will include the use of confrontational direct civil disobiedient action if necessary.
---USAn---
Nobody can praise Martin Luther King on the one hand, and condemn what you say on the other hand. I notice you did not say violent, just confrontational. Om wichya, as they say here in Brooklyn.
Unity is possible only if the situation is positive and ethical. Otherwise it is a euphemism for following blindly and giving up the responsibility to think and act. I worry about some of Obama's initiatives, such as Afghanistan and the bailout. I also worry about reluctance to decisively reverse some of Bush's worst deeds. I worry that his programs, some of which I love like Green Jobs and Army of Teachers, will be weak and administered as pork to get support from the powerful.
I hope that Obama will be able to resist the stridency of the likes of Pat Buchanan in the case of some incident, real or staged. He will need courage to forego the easy move of random war-dick swinging and bombing to appear tough. The Clintons did plenty of harm to innocents when they needed a distraction or a bump in the polls.
Will he do anything for the people of Gaza? This is probably the signature issue that will define those who are willing to put away childish things. Will he take a stand for those abused people or keep quiet to keep his lunchroom popularity? A lot of it depends on us, I think. Will we feed him the line "I have got to take a stand because people are out in the streets and we risk rebellion"? Or will we be lazy and expect someone else to take the initiative?
I do not want to forget that Obama is not the whole show. There is Congress and we have to start replacing some of those losers.
Joe
I had a strange reaction when I saw Michelle Obama, lovely in her daytime inauguration dress, and now the First Lady of the US. I suddenly remembered her first Princeton roommate, Catherine Donnelly: "I Was Horrified" To Live With A Black Person.
=====
"She walked into the historic Nassau Inn that evening and delivered the news to her mother, Alice Brown. "I was horrified," recalled Brown, who had driven her daughter up from New Orleans. Brown stormed down to the campus housing office and demanded Donnelly be moved to another room."
=====
How far Michelle has come from those days. Now Catherine Donnelly and her mother say they regret their racism back in the 70s but that regret can't really undo all that time lost when they could have been friends. College roommates are special and share affectionate lasting memories.
Anyway, I wondered what Catherine Donnelly was thinking today...
It has a deliciousness like "The Revenge of the Nerds" or any movie in which the snob gets comeuppance.
Joe
Encouraging National Service? Is Obama mad?
America is already the world's preeminent warmonger and greatest producer of armaments. Does Obama want it to follow the example of Israel where every male and female has to do two years in the army so they can kill Palestinians when called upon to do so? Their success at this was graphically shown in Gaza in recent days and they stand condemned for it!
It's time to sue arms manufacturers for the damage and death their products cause, treat them the same as the loathsome cigarette companies.
Check my blog for further on this novel idea.
www.dangerouscreation.com
Dennis Kucinich is in need of financial help.
The man who many of us here wish was being sworn in as president today is still paying off debt from his recent congressional run.
To contribute please visit:
http://kucinich.us/contribute
These words from Dennis:
"...As Congress begins, I have been leading the way towards addressing the humanitarian plight of the people of Gaza whose desperate conditions must be addressed if there is to be any chance for peace in the Middle East. I have also begun a campaign to work on the reform of our monetary system in order to bring about equity, prosperity and environmental sustainability.
"...I had to spend the resources you provided me with in order to retain my seat in Congress. I need your generous help again to fund our ongoing political operations including media outreach, web communications, office administration and issues campaigning.
"...I know these are hard times, but your contribution is essential to strengthening our efforts. Please contribute as generously as you can. Your support assures a true independent voice in Congress.
With hope and in peace,
Dennis
Story and video here:
http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/8543
Barack Obama does not have as much work to do as everybody thinks. What is needed to save our country is not so much a task, a tackling of new problems, as a cessation of past idiocies. We could relax and stop grabbing natural resources that don't belong to us. We could discontinue stuffing the porky cheeks of drones in the insurance, banking, pharmaceutical and weapons industries who sap our resources and contribute nothing to society. We could quit pouring money and effort into corrupt systems that don't work, soldiers who create more enemies, doctors who don't cure, politicians who don't serve, loan sharks who clamp onto the economy like leeches, arms traders for whom world peace is the kiss of death, ambulance chasers, opportunists, profiteers, exploiters, K Street cronies, war mongers, and simplify our lives by just doing without them. We don't need more of anything. We need less of a whole lot of things.
UNITY? ONE COUNTRY? TELL IT TO THE BILLIONAIRES AND THE HOMELESS.
Obama is a good man. He has good instincts. He went to work for the poor on the South Side of Chicago when he could easily have put himself on the millionaire track.
But he is embedded in a system of corporate capitalism in which the 5 Walmart children have each inherited what is now worth 16 billion. Meanwhile our downtowns are bursting with homeless people, and even workers with full time jobs have to live in their cars. A CEO of a health insurance company can rake in a billion a year, while at least 18,000 people die every year for lack of coverage. (That's 6 times the toll of 9-11, every year.) And bankers can grow impossibly rich tricking families into mortgages they cannot possibly pay for, and then richer still by bundling the mortgages into junk bonds.
I don't blame Obama for cozying up to the billionaires to win the presidency. It is the only way it can be done, and Obama is the best president the corporate mass media will allow. Absent a mass movement they have absolute veto power. And Obama does at least talk about the greed of the few and works in a homeless shelter.
But it is OUR job to build a mass movement. WE have to publicize the systematic ripoffs of the plutocracy; WE have to push for real taxes on the rich; a minimum wage that is a living wage, health care, job training and higher education for everyone, the Employee Free Choice Act and other pro-union reforms, subsidized housing, election reform. It is our job to redirect the military budget into human needs. And for all of that we need cohesive, permanent movement and a system of communication to rival the mass media.
Barack Obama won't do it. It is up to us.
Although I hold out hope for better times ,I remain skeptical of a man people seem to put so much hope in.
We need to believe in ourselves and our ability to help our each other.. Not some image of perhaps false hope, in Washington D.C.
The answer is with us, the people. Politicians are politicians. Take that for what it is worth.
I also am weary of one who calls for national service, in the land of the free.