"I did it" - Obama Sworn In For 2nd Term As US President.

[OttoVonBismarck]

He can swear in on anything, I think one swore in on a book of laws. He also can swear in on nothing at all. He also doesn't have to have a public swearing in, the swearing in he did with Chief Justice Roberts on Sunday would have been sufficient and he could have chosen not to have a public inauguration ceremony at all.

Several of the ceremonial things the President does are totally optional. He also could for example, just deliver his State of the Union report as a piece of paper to the Congress. There is no requirement he gives a speech.

[Ideologue]

Two things that Krugman has been pointing out that I fully agree with is that (paraphrasing greatly) 1)you can tell who is arguing in at least something reasonably approaching good faith by whether they adjust their theoretical frameworks and recommendations for action in response to actual evidence, and any economists on the right have been avoiding doing this for years now, and 2)the self-righteous "center," and the neutral-to-a-fault media, have been enabling this for a very long time, by framing every disagreement as between two equally valid (and often equally despised) opinions, even when one "opinion" is based on falsities or lies and the other on facts and observable evidence.

Who and what the hell are you talking about?

The Austrian/Austerian people.  I should know more names but I don't off the top of my head, and feel disinclined to research it now--did Alesina and/or Ardagna recant on their flawed findings that contractionary policy wasn't contractionary?  Also, name a deficit hawk economist or one who's been warning of an inflationary period that has yet to materialize, and that's to whom I refer.

Anyway, I'll get you next time, Gadget.

[Zanza]

He can swear in on anything, I think one swore in on a book of laws. He also can swear in on nothing at all. He also doesn't have to have a public swearing in, the swearing in he did with Chief Justice Roberts on Sunday would have been sufficient and he could have chosen not to have a public inauguration ceremony at all.

Several of the ceremonial things the President does are totally optional. He also could for example, just deliver his State of the Union report as a piece of paper to the Congress. There is no requirement he gives a speech.

That would be hilarious. Everybody is waiting for a big speech and he just sends an e-mail to all members of Congress and cc's the press corps. Maybe David Cameron should do that for his EU speech.

[CountDeMoney]

He also could for example, just deliver his State of the Union report as a piece of paper to the Congress. There is no requirement he gives a speech.

Just once, I'd like to see a President do that.  Just mail it to them.  After all, all it says is "from time to time".

But the SotU isn't simply for Congress anymore, and hasn't been for a long time.

[derspiess]

I'm not hearing enough about Michelle's new hair

Hopefully tonight when she's wearing her gown her arms will get the press they richly deserve.

[OttoVonBismarck]

The SotU timing is weird. I think a long time ago it was less formalized, but now it's generally accepted a SotU given in January/February of a given year is "for" the prior year. So in January 1993 technically George H.W. Bush should have given a State of the Union address and not Bill Clinton. Instead I don't believe Bush gave one at all, or even sent a report. In fact I don't think Reagan or Clinton or Bush II did in the final January of their Presidencies either.

In 1993 Clinton gave a speech to a joint session of Congress early in his term, but it was not a State of the Union address, and his first State of the Union was given in January of '94.

Carter I think actually mailed a written address in January of '80, but it looks like other outgoing Presidents have just not done one at all, probably under the recognition that the Constitution doesn't require it and it is politically irrelevant.

[Syt]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/01/president-obamas-second-inaugural-as-heard-by-conspiracy-theorists-and-haters/266853/

President Obama's Second Inaugural, as Heard By Conspiracy Theorists and Haters

We gather here today not just to celebrate the machinery of our Republic and reaffirm the continuing story of our country, but to celebrate me. We are here because we have chosen fear over hope. Conflict and discord over unity of purpose. Division and class warfare over reconciliation and quiet consent. Perhaps it's appropriate that today is Martin Luther King Day. In observance of this grand day, I took care to make sure that I was sworn in on Malcolm X's Koran just moments ago.

First, I just want to take a moment to thank all of the foreign campaign donors, the Saudi princes, and the hundreds of thousands of Acorn employees and Occupy Wall Street volunteers it took to commit the widespread voter fraud that won me this second term. And to the majority who voted against me and were able to produce ID: I may not have won your vote last year, but with malice toward most and government-funded charity for all, I will be your president, too.

When I stood before you to take this oath four years ago, I did so in a time of great economic stress at home and deadly perils abroad. Thanks to my administration's socialist domestic policies and a strategy of timid appeasement abroad, we have turned the corner, and our nation is once again poised for our next great catastrophe. My communist tutors could have never imagined that I would preside over a country with the Dow sitting at 13,000 and corporate profits at an all-time high: perfect camouflage for the economic crisis I will use to enact the unconstitutional takeover that will lead to my inevitable third term. A third term where I will put my limitless ambition and presidential legacy aside, and bring about the total destruction of America.

Though this is contrary to my intentions and actions, America appears to be astride the world once again. We have successfully blocked Palestinian statehood, despite our true Muslim sympathies. Our newly gay armies have left the country of Iraq. We have successfully faked the death of Osama Bin Laden. Iran is about to obtain the bomb we will use against Israel. The CIA, which trained me so well for my current mission, has helped to prop up Muslim extremist governments in Yemen, Libya, Egypt, and -- soon -- Syria. With these objectives met and with 100 million Muslims destined for entry into the U.S., we will finally be one step closer to establishing Sharia Law within our burgeoning Caliphate. And, Inshallah, with the assistance of One World Government U.N. troops and your ambivalence, we will finally take our next Great Leap Forward. While the liberation theology that governs my life runs in contrast to what I was taught at madrassa, I will not let it stop me from traveling around the world on 200-million-dollar trips to apologize for the country. And though I will continue to expand the United States' empire into the South Pacific to counter China, I will not forget my anti-colonialist roots.

(PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE)

Though we will no doubt be able to lower the price of gas through our holy brothers at OPEC, with the help of the global climate change hoax we will still push for clean energy. And once my armed civilian police force has confiscated every gun and every American is tagged, tracked, and located, we will institute a new Cash for Clunkers program. Every car made before 2008 will be seized and replaced, free of charge, with a Union-made Chevy Volt. After this is accomplished, we will need a fleet of Solyndra-built domestic Predator drones to patrol the skies. Anyone who drives over the nationally mandated 45 mile per hour speed limit will be fired upon and eliminated. We will let the nation know that we will build any debt, pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, tax any carbon, and properly inflate any tire. There is no bald eagle that we will not sacrifice upon the propellers of our wind turbines.

(PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE)

Our renewed commitment to clean energy must of course be tempered by our relentless need for fossil fuels. That's the reason I will give when I authorize the Keystone pipeline. Not just because it will create jobs, but it will provide important cover for that Canada to Mexico superhighway we've been trying to build.

With our nation secure and our energy clean we can then begin the work of forcible gay marriage. We will let no heterosexual relationship stand in the way of our much more fabulous future. No child who survives their forced abortion will be left un-indoctrinated by their local teachers union. All citizens will be raised as secular atheists. College will be provided gratis for these children. Of course, all of this investment in and control of each person will be closely monitored by our death panels. The question we have continually asked ourselves is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works hard enough to truly control the lives of its citizens, enslave its young to hedonism and legalized marijuana, force its elderly into a comfortable subjugation, and create, from cradle to grave, dependency on government.

Some may ask, "Why invest so much time and money into each citizen's life just to place them at the mercy of death panels?" And the answer to that is this -- as evidenced by the sinister realities that exist within the minds of its citizens, Americans are just too dangerous to be left to their own devices. So, America, I say to you: Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what your country can do for you.

Although my administration has deported more illegal immigrants than any other in history, we must do more to make America a more inclusive state. That is why after granting amnesty, Obama phones, and driver's licenses to every undocumented immigrant that is already here, my administration will open up the borders without conditions. Every new entry will be registered and forced to vote by the New Black Panther Party. And I urge them to report to their new local government Gift Depot to claim their free gifts. In addition, Puerto Rico must be admitted immediately as the 58th state. Though demographic shifts make this electorally unnecessary, we must do all that we can to make this country less white.

America is a beautiful country where anything is possible. And when I say "anything," I mean anything -- no matter how insane or contradictory -- can be real, if only in your mind. These realities can only take hold within the vacuum of your brave, irrational dreams. In your dreams, there is no Churchill bust we won't deport. No monthly jobs report we will not manipulate. No poll number that is not worth skewing. No conservative blogger too irrelevant to murder. No Cabinet official too important or ambitious to silence in order to hide The Truth about Benghazi. There is no national tragedy or crisis we won't stage to exploit.

Only in this America can flag pins can be melted down and used for fuel in the rebuilt UFOs that crashed in Roswell. In this America, all will be forbidden from placing their hands over their hearts during the Pledge of Allegiance to the government that staged the coup against John F. Kennedy. Only in this America could we take the time and commit the effort to fake the moon landing. In this America, Bill Ayers will ghostwrite the official Agenda 21 manifesto. Only in this America could the inept Bush administration, like FDR's before them with Pearl Harbor, execute a false flag terrorist attack in broad daylight and live on TV, and convince the world that it was committed by Muslim fundamentalists who would later install their own president.

In this America it is not just the duty of every citizen to vote and volunteer, but to actively believe in whatever they want as an expression of the freedom their country has bestowed upon them. A country where, for me, foreign birth is no impediment to joining the CIA, teleporting to Mars, becoming a gay, socialist, Muslim empowered by a cabal of Jewish media-controlling capitalists to institute a techno-aged internationalist, atheistic hellscape of wealth redistribution. In this America all of that and more is possible, however unlikely. But I can't do this alone, America. I can only do this if you believe.

Thank you.

God damn you. And may God damn the United States of America

(ROARING APPLAUSE)

[CountDeMoney]

Carter I think actually mailed a written address in January of '80,

It was actually January '81's SotU that he mailed in as a lame duck.  SotU'80 was the Carter Doctrine.

[The Minsky Moment]

Who and what the hell are you talking about?

I assume the folks that warned that the Fed extraordinary measures would prompt hyperinflation.

[CountDeMoney]

Meh, the inaugural review of the troops is pretty lame compared to Bastille Day, or the old Red Square reviews.

Pretty cool to have the colonial militia and Continental Army in their throwback jerseys, though.

[derspiess]

Meh, the inaugural review of the troops is pretty lame compared to Bastille Day, or the old Red Square reviews.

Pretty cool to have the colonial militia and Continental Army in their throwback jerseys, though.

Yep. Don't tread on me.

[Admiral Yi]

Would you say the colonial militia looked well-regulated? 

[CountDeMoney]

Would you say the colonial militia looked well-regulated? 

Incredibly well-regulated.  They did a slow march then a half-step, then back to full forward to the fifes and drums. 

[CountDeMoney]

Man, Obama's aged over the last four years.

He's going to look like Morgan Freeman by the time he leaves office.

[Scipio]

Exhibit A of what? I've been moaning about this for ages because I normally agree with them and I get annoyed at American liberal writers

My view of many liberal writers and hosts is that they don't want to persuade, they want to enjoy being right - it's a problem with some lefty campaigners in this country too. The impression I get is that they view conservatives as if they're always operating in bad faith, they're being conned by Fox News and talk radio, or they're deluded. There's not really much respect or tolerance for a different perspective - they're just wrong, and laughably so. They don't make arguments, they make inside jokes.

Don't know what you are watching or who you are listening to.

Exhibit A in the false equivalency argument is that right after Stiglitz published his piece, Paul Krugman criticized it in his blog.  So on one of the biggest economic issues in terms of political valence, the two leading liberal pundits are disgareeing and advancing reasoned arguments.

It helps that the two leading left-wing economic pundits are at the very top of their profession.  The comparison to the fatuous clowns and talentless hacks paraded forth on Fox or CNBC could not be more glaring.  Of course there do exist conservative economists that are at the Stiglitz/Krugman level but tend to be marginalized unless they play to the fantasists gallery.  So Arthur Laffer still gets more air time than Greg Mankiw because the latter betrayed the True Faith by advocating for a carbon tax.

Where do you put Steven Landsburg on your continuum?