Obama's first inaugural address, with my comments:
My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors.
I thank President Bush for his service to our nation as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.
The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebears, and true to our founding documents.
So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
So far, just fluff.
That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.
Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many, and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.
Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real, they are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.
No one went to jail for the financial crisis shenanigans, none of the big banks were broken up, education has not improved in any meaningful way, health insurance is more expensive than ever, and people are more pessimistic than ever about America's future, to the point that a candidate like Trump is the front runner for the Republican nomination based almost solely on his ability to tap into the anger and frustration that many voters feel over the sense that their government no longer represents them.
On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.
Over the past seven years, we have had almost exactly the opposite of what he was proposing. We've had little hope, lots of fear, tons of conflict, many more false promises, and politics is more strangled now than ever.
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less.
It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sanh.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
I assume he was talking about the kind of people about whom he would later make the comment: "You didn't build that."
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed.
Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.
The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth.
We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.
Did we build roads, bridges, electric grids and digital lines? I don't recall him saying much at all as President about infrastructure, other than when he opposed Stage IV of the Keystone Pipeline.
We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality...
The only thing I think of when I think of Obama and science is Ahmed and his clock.
... and lower its costs.
Ha ha ha. Health care costs have risen faster after Obamacare than before.
We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.
Most cars still run on gas and battery technology that existed in 2008. I haven't seen any sun, wind or dirt-powered cars.
All this we can do. All this we will do.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.
The cynics had it right. The system can't tolerate too many big plans, and the one big plan that did get through in the form of health care reform was one that probably shouldn't have.
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.
Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.
The long term decline in the real wages of all but the rich continued under Obama, the cost of health care went up, and retirement was pushed out for years for millions of people who began to realize that a 401(k) plan is a lousy retirement vehicle.
And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
Snowden's leaks pretty much revealed what the government thought about operating in the light of day.
Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched.
But this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control. The nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.
The big banks are just as dangerous today as they were then, and from my perspective money translates into political access and influence more than it ever has in our history.
The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.
Even though Obama dramatically expanded the government's surveillance operations over its own citizens, it doesn't seem to have prevented anyone bent on attacking us from attacking us. In other words, under Obama we got neither our safety NOR our ideals.
Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.
Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake.
But we did, or maybe I should say Obama did it for us.
And so, to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and we are ready to lead once more.
...and that's why we are going to bring our surveillance operations to not just our enemies, but our allies as well, right down to bugging the phones of the heads of state of our allies.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.
They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We'll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard- earned peace in Afghanistan.
We left Iraq, but it fell apart soon thereafter, which gave rise to ISIS. There is no peace in Afghanistan.
With old friends and former foes, we'll work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet.
Nothing has happened on the climate change front and North Korea just tested another nuclear weapon.
We will not apologize for our way of life nor will we waver in its defense.
And for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that, "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."
I'm sure the drone manufacturers loved that part, but the reality is that the spirit of radical Islamists around the world is harder than ever and they seem more bent on destruction than ever.
For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.
Obama would go on to exploit our "patchwork heritage" at every opportunity for political gain, including repeatedly inserting himself pointlessly into local law enforcement matters.
We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.
In 2008, the U.S. Muslim population was .6% of the total population. Hindus and all other Eastern religions were .9%. He was describing a heterogeneous population that simply didn't exist.
And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
Unfortunately, our common humanity did not reveal itself. What revealed itself was every sort of political, ethnic and religious factionalism you can imagine.
To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.
Fail.
To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.
What actually happened was that when people in the Middle East were allowed to choose their own leaders, they chose people even more radical than the status quo.
To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
When compared to ISIS, Assad doesn't look so bad.
To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds.
And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders...
[he goes on to say a bunch of vague and stirring stuff without much substance.]
...Thank you. God bless you.
And God bless the United States of America.
Overall, looking back Obama looks like the naive novice that he turned out to be. America didn't get the hope and change it was promised, but it got about what it should have expected.
