I enjoyed President Obama's Inaugural Address on Monday quite a bit. Many of the themes and ideas we heard from him during his first campaign back in 2008 resurfaced as goals and intentions for his second term. I understand the political reality that a President can't do everything in his first term and with his prioritization of reforming healthcare in the United States, its obvious that almost everything else had to come later.
Mind you, there was significant legislation not related to healthcare in the form of equal pay for women, the end of "don't ask-don't tell" in the military, consumer protection, financial regulatory reform, etc. Looking forward, immigration, gun reform and addressing the debt/deficit in a balanced fashion are next up.
My favorite line from his speech earlier this week was this:
"We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate."
He's absolutely correct. Regardless of your political persuasions, we all should embrace rational discourse and shun the theatrics we've seen for much of the last decade.
We should all agree on this, right?
Why wouldn't we?
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