Today is Martin Luther King, Jr Day and the day for the public ceremony commemorating America’s 44th President, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) Inauguration as America’s 45th President.

Second term, same as the first? …to paraphrase Herman’s Hermits “I’m Henry the 8th, I am”.

Obama will be sworn in using two Bibles, one belonging to Dr. King, and one belonging to Abraham Lincoln.

As far as Dr. King is concerned, this day and that Bible, are all that Obama has in common with Dr. King.

Concerning Lincoln, the London Daily Telegraph attempts to compare the Manchurian President to the Great Emanicpator:

Mr Obama has often been mentioned in the same breath as Lincoln. Not as his equal, but the symmetry of America’s first black president starting his political journey from the same place, Springfield, Illinois, as the man who emancipated the slaves, is lost on no-one.

Lincoln’s magisterial second inaugural address, uncontestably the greatest of all inaugurals, still contains the recipe for a great speech come Monday at noon, says Dr Ronald White, a Lincoln historian and author of Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural.

Firstly, Mr Obama must avoid the pitfalls of almost all second inaugurals by not making it longer than his first. “Lincoln learned that lesson,” said Dr White, “The Gettysburg Address was 272 words. The second inaugural was 701 words. Lincoln delivered it in just six or seven minutes and people were still arriving when he was finishing.”

Secondly, Lincoln dared to be honest. He confronted the American people frankly about the issue of slavery, an institution that cost the nation four devastating years of civil war. “People expected Lincoln to talk about the Confederacy – the guilty and innocent – but he understood this was the moment to give something short, inspirational and from the heart,” said Dr White, “He confronted the evils of slavery and avoided the usual exercise in self-congratulation, and talk about ‘this great nation of America’. It was a great risk, but Lincoln took it.”

And lastly, Lincoln succeeded because, unlike many a re-elected president, he didn’t fall for his own publicity. “In the Gettysburg address, there is not one personal pronoun and in the second inaugural, only two,” Dr White concludes, “Lincoln didn’t talk about his ‘mandate’ – a phrase you hear now from Mr Obama – but directed all the attention away from himself to the values of the great democratic experiment. He understood that he was a spokesperson for something larger than himself.”

Brevity. Honesty. Humility. If Mr Obama dares to dream of even coming close to matching his hero, these must be his watchwords.

Fat chance of that. As long as Scooter has himself, he’ll never be alone.

So, what’s on his  Machiavellian agenda for the next four years? And, what is the First Mooch going to be up to?

According to the New York Times:

What Mr. Obama wants to achieve this term is pretty clear: a fiscal deal and overhauls of gun and immigration laws, steps to address climate change and less restrictive voter identification laws. But what Mrs. Obama wants is more of a mystery. In almost every appearance, she sounds warm, unpretentious notes; on Friday, she continued her Twitter banter with Ellen DeGeneres over who could do more push-ups.

That informal tone can mask how disciplined she is. Though many surrounding the Obamas say she has changed far more than her husband, mastering a role she initially found uncomfortable, she still treats the job of first lady like a dangerous country through which she must navigate safe passage. The woman who never wanted to live in the bubble now uses it to protect herself, according to friends and former aides, preparing her public activities in 6- and 12-month strategic plans, rarely saying anything unscripted. First ladies are often figures of comfort, but she did not address the Newtown tragedy, beyond two brief letters she published, even though some of her fans were clamoring for the self-described “mom in chief” to do more.

In recent weeks, Mrs. Obama and her advisers have been discussing whether to expand her work beyond childhood obesity and military families and how to capitalize on her popularity. On Friday, she threw herself into her husband’s new effort to organize supporters, introducing the group, Organizing for Action, in an announcement video. (The effort did not seem to garner as much attention as her new hairstyle, which set off headlines like “Michelle Obama’s Bangs Are a Total Shock to the System.”)

Mrs. Obama cannot wait too long to set out on a new course: the Obamas will soon have more time behind them in the White House than in front of them. The rituals they introduced are now matters of tradition instead of innovation. At their White House Seder, the small group of mostly African-American and Jewish attendees reads the Emancipation Proclamation right before welcoming Elijah, just as the year before. The president played basketball on Election Day 2012, as he did on most of the voting days in 2008. But this time it felt different: the men older, the action slower, a reunion game with everyone talking about the old days, said John Rogers Jr., a longtime friend who joined in.

Mr. Obama’s entire career has been about getting to the next stage: if he could only become a lawyer, and then a public official, and then a United States senator, and then president, he could create real change. But soon there will be no higher job to reach for, and aides say there is an all-business quality to the Obamas now, a contrast with the sense of possibility that hung over the first inauguration. Early in the presidency, Mr. Obama would sometimes spend hours polishing ceremonial speeches, like one for Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial; now, the president has a more finely honed sense of how to use his precious time, said Adam Frankel, a former speechwriter.

In other words, while confident in the power he wields, Obama also knows that he is a lame duck….and that makes him all the more uninhibited…and dangerous.

As we have been experiencing since his re-election, the gloves are off, and he is going to do whatever he can to “radically change” our country into a socialist nation.

The only things that will save us are: 

1. Our system of Checks and Balances, which our founders so brilliantly put in place.

2. The independence-fueled resistance of the American people.

3. The Grace of God.

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.- Ronald Reagan

Until He Comes,

KJ