Roger Simon of The Politico notes many of the key passages in Obama's inaugural address, and adds this important caveat:
"Will any of these words someday be carved in marble? That depends not on the words, but on the presidency. Nobody remembers the words of failed administrations. Great words are made immortal by great presidents. Barack Obama now has this burden and this opportunity. His journey and ours begins."
Pete Hegseth points out, correctly, that it was good to see Obama lauding the power of individual action, and especially military service, as a way to better our country.
Victor Davis Hanson correctly diagnoses an important legacy of the departing president--that Mr. Bush made this a safer country:
"We were not attacked after 9/11, despite serial warnings that such a comparable terrorist assault was inevitable. Bush created a new methodology of anti-terrorism. In magnitude and comprehensiveness (though unfortunately not in explication), it was analogous to Truman’s similarly controversial promotion of anti-Soviet containment that proved successful for the subsequent near half-century. For all the rhetoric about Bush’s manufactured war on terror, today it is much more difficult—as the dozens of failed plots during the last seven years attest—to pull off a terrorist act inside the United States. War abroad and new anti-terrorism vigilance at home have decimated those who would wage such attacks."
Apparently Tom Brokaw, during NBC's inauguration coverage, compared this peaceful transfer of power to the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia some 20 years ago.
Yes, right, Mr. Brokaw--George W. Bush's presidency was akin to that of a communist dictatorship. I'm sure we'll see plenty more examples of media idiocy in the days ahead.
