Watch out for more inaugural coverage, but in the meantime, here’s the full text of President Obama’s inaugural address. For some reason, many commentators have characterized it as “somber” and without any memorable lines or soaring rhetoric. But upon careful reading and after watching it a few times, I believe that on retrospect, it will be considered one for the ages. Check it out.

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 forbearers, and true to our founding documents. 

So it has been.  So it must be with this generation of Americans. 

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, and 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. 

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. 

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 short-cuts 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 like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn. 

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. 

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 the 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.  We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.  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.  All this we can do.  And 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 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.  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.

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 – and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous.  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 our 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.  Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils 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.  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 that we are ready to lead once more. 

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with 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 will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.  With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet.  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.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.  We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.  We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; 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. 

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.  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.  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.

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 suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect.  For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains.  They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.  We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves.  And yet, at this moment – a moment that will define a generation – it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.  It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.  It is the firefighter’s courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent’s willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. 

Our challenges may be new.  The instruments with which we meet them may be new.  But those values upon which our success depends – hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism – these things are old.  These things are true.  They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history.  What is demanded then is a return to these truths.  What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence – the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed – why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled.  In the year of America’s birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river.  The capital was abandoned.  The enemy was advancing.  The snow was stained with blood.  At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”

America.  In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words.  With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.  Let it be said by our children’s children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

From Al Jazeera English, “Misconceptions of Obama Fuel Republican Campaign”

Yet John McCain “categorically repudiates any comments about Obama that are untrue.” Right.

“I didn’t see it the way that it’s being taken. I never connected. It was just food to me. It didn’t mean anything else.” —Diane Fedele, president of the Chaffey Community Republican Women on an illustration she used of Barack Obama on “food stamps.”

Spotted on NPR’s News and Views blog:

The above image was included in a newsletter published this month by California’s Chaffey Community Republican Women, according to NPR.org’s Geoffrey Gardner. As posted on his blog, the president of the organization, Diane Fedele, says she just wanted to deride Obama’s comment that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

So she put him on food stamps? With fried chicken, ribs, watermelon, and the Kool-Aid man? But she doesn’t see it “the way that it’s being taken?” Wow. I really have no words.

And has anyone told this woman that “food stamps” come on debit cards now? Maybe her next illustration will be one of its recipients using their “MassaCard.”

Well it turns out that there are some real Mavericks out there who are none too happy with John McCain and Sarah Palin taking on their brand. Check out Who You Callin’ a Maverick? in the New York Times.

I’ve always wondered what makes Republicans tick. This video doesn’t explain it, but gives us a peek inside their world.

American News Project

White privilege is being able to dump your first wife after she’s disfigured in a car crash so you can take up with a multi-millionaire beauty queen (who you then go on to call the c-word in public) and still be thought of as a man of strong family values, while if you’re black and married for nearly 20 years to the same woman, your family is viewed as un-American and your gestures of affection for each other are called “terrorist fist bumps. — Tim Wise

My favorite angry white man, anti-racist author and activist Tim Wise, laid out a compelling argument in a recent blog on his site, www.timwise.org, about how white privilege has impacted how the presidential and vice-presidential candidates are perceived. Check it out.

Think the shenanigans of 2000 are over? Hardly.

I happened to catch the documentary Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections by filmmaker David Earnhardt, which shows “how the election fraud that changed the outcome of the 2004 election led to even greater fraud in 2006—and now looms as an unbridled threat to the outcome of the 2008 election.”

Please check out the site, view the trailer, buy the dvd, go to a screening, spread the word, and then get involved. Whatever your party, whomever your candidate of choice, we should agree that “one person, one vote” is the cornerstone of our democracy.

From the description:

UNCOUNTED shares well documented stories about the spine-chilling disregard for the right to vote in America. In Florida, computer programmer Clint Curtis is directed by his boss to create software that will “flip” votes from one candidate to another. In Utah, County Clerk Bruce Funk is locked out of his office for raising questions about security flaws in electronic voting machines. Californian Steve Heller gets convicted of a felony after he leaks secret documents detailing illegal activities committed by a major voting machine company. And Tennessee entrepreneur, Athan Gibbs, finds verifiable voting a hard sell in America and dies before his dream of honest elections can be realized.

(Read from the bottom up)

“John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell – but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.” —Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, in his acceptance speech to the DNC

It looks like Barack Obama found his inner piranha. In a speech that went a long way to answer critics’ claims that he’s too soft, the Democratic presidential nominee put some teeth into his soaring rhetoric, challenging John McCain’s and the GOP’s attacks on his message of hope, claims of celebrity, and general empty-suitness.

In fact, the speech played down some of the usual Obama feel-good stuff and filled in all of the so-called holes without losing any of the inspiration. And he threw in a few good zingers as well. One of the most interesting parts of his speech, however, showed what has long made him one of the most unique candidates to seek the presidency.

“We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country,” Obama said. “The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang- violence in Cleveland, but don’t tell me we can’t uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.  I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.  Passions fly on immigration, but I don’t know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers. This too is part of America’s promise—the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.”

As one veteran journalist sitting beside me said, caught off-guard by this passage, he didn’t have to wade into this territory.

But that’s Barack Obama. As much as his speeches are inspirational, they have never been devoid of substance. And wading into risky territory like abortion, same-sex partnerships, gun ownership and yes, race—the one hot-button issue that he didn’t overtly touch upon but didn’t need to—is part of his appeal.

As folks say, you can’t be all things to all people, but tonight, Barack Obama somehow found a way to come awfully close—at least for the Democratic party.

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Michelle and the kids are on the big screen. She changed from a blue dress she was wearing earlier to a beautiful red and black print. As usual, she looks amazing.

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The Colorado Obama guy is back, still trying to get folks to sign up for the text messages to the DNC. Wonder what happened to them showing us the map of which states signed up the most?

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Ramping up to Obama’s acceptance speech, the air is electric (pardon the use of the trite expression). With the flags flying, it’s probably one of the most patriotic displays from of a bunch of Democrats I’ve seen.

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The folks from the American Voices Program all came up and told the stories that I suppose Phil Gramm would call whiney, but boy, were their stories compelling—and pithy. “We need a president who will put Barney Smith before Smith Barney.” Wow. Did that guy write that line himself? If so, somebody get him a job as a copywriter!

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Al Gore obviously is still the man! He received as big an ovation as Bill Clinton did last night.

Why is the election so close?, asks Al Gore, who says, of course, that he knows a thing or two about close elections. It’s “mainly because the forces of the status quo are desperately afraid of the change Barack Obama represents.” Al is probably talking policy, but I’m thinking more about those pictures on the dollar bills.

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It’s Stevie!! But he’s performing that Barack song that I’m not really feeling. He killed it with “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” though!

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Will.i.am is all over this convention. I went to a Black Eyed Peas concert last night (see the Youtube video on the Uptown channel) but he didn’t want to do the Obama speech song at a party. Probably because he wanted to do it here. Very nice, though.

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Hey, where was I for Jennifer Hudson’s National Anthem? Must have been when I went hunting for food.

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The Obama State Director from Colorado has come to the stage asking the audience to text “DNC” and their message support to OBAMA (62262). There’s a map of the US on the jumbo screen, and each state’s star will get bigger the more people text. It’s like a contest to see which state can sign up the most supporters. Wow. Are young folks that gullible?

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The sun is pretty hot in the stands, probably because we’re so close to the sun up here. I should have brought some sunscreen!

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As we’ve heard hundred times, it’s the 45^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But today will from now on be known as the day the first African-American accepted the Democratic Party nomination for the presidency of the United States. I’m at Invesco Field to bring the highlights of this historic occasion.

…This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up. How do we give this country back to them?

By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad. And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice: If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they’re shouting after you, keep going. Don’t ever stop. Keep going. — Hillary Clinton in her address to the Democratic National Convention

The message was meant to draw inspiration from the struggle for women’s rights and that of all Americans who persevere against the odds, but somehow Hillary Clinton’s words sounded almost like she was sending a coded message to all her PUMA gals: I have to play nice like a good Democrat, but you don’t. Keep going!

Call me cynical. I know that Hillary’s speech hit a lot of the right notes. She said to her supporters that if they believe in and support the issues she ran for, then vote for Barack Obama, and this time it didn’t look like it pained her to do so. That’s because she gave a speech she could deliver with conviction, the core message of which was: Vote for Barack Obama, because he’s a Democrat and he’s not John McCain.

Based on the strength of her delivery, her speech was effective in getting most people to believe that she did all she could do to support the nominee. But she clearly did not offer a ringing endorsement of the candidate, and I can’t help but wonder what her real agenda is. Once she got to quoting Harriet Tubman—arguably the strongest female figure of the 19th century, the woman who sang spirituals to deliver coded messages and supposedly once threatened to kill a slave who was too frightened to continue a mission to freedom—it sort of felt like the other shoe was about to drop right on top of that oft-mentioned cracked glass ceiling and send 18 million jagged little shards raining on Barack Obama’s head.

Wednesday is the roll call vote, and Clinton’s name will be placed in nomination to honor her supporters and her historic candidacy. Some Obama supporters are grumbling about this, but it has been done before, with, for example, Jesse Jackson and Shirley Chisholm. But this time doesn’t feel like Hillary’s folks will be happy with a symbolic nomination that will celebrate and honor her achievements.

These women are angry, and they’re going to let everyone know it. There has been some rumbling around the Convention and during Tuesday’s Women’s Caucus that many Hillary supporters are trying to get all of her delegates to vote for her during the roll call, rather than stick with an agreed-upon plan to end with New York’s delegates. On Tuesday I overheard one unidentified delegate’s phone conversation in which he apparently shot down someone’s request for him to vote for Hillary: “There are going to be two presidential candidates in this race: John McCain and Barack Obama,” he said. ”I’m not throwing my vote away on a symbolic gesture.” So they’re apparently still trying.

The irony is that if women are really equal, then we need to accept that we can compete and lose just like the next guy, and then keep it moving. Yelling that the other guy didn’t play fair and demanding special consideration of your runner-up status sounds like you really weren’t ready to get in the game. Like the little girl on the playground who begs to play with the big boys, despite the warnings that she might get hurt. Once she does get hurt and starts crying, she expects the boys to stop playing and tend to her. They didn’t want her there in the first place, and now she’s messing up their game ’cause they gotta deal with her.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m all for putting a woman in the White House. Just picture it: a woman president of the U.S., along with other heads of state like Germany’s Angela Merkel, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, and Michelle Bachelet of Chile. Once that wave starts really taking off, we could really begin to change the world. But let’s not be wusses about it—if you’re ready to play, be ready to lose. Even if you think it’s wrong. Even if you think the game was rigged. That’s something women can learn from men, who have learned this lesson from a lifetime of playing sports. Sometimes the other side doesn’t play fair. Sometimes the officials are biased. Sometimes the rules are broken, and you lose. Oh well. Life goes on. Just ask Al Gore, John Kerry, or Michael Dukakis.

Maybe I’m overanalyzing this. After all, for all of their noise, there aren’t but so many PUMAs out there.  And HIllary is very clear about what role she needs to play now for the good of the party and more importantly, her role in it.  But the message she’s giving her most diehard supporters the quiet cue that if they’re not ready to come on board, that’s just fine with her. And that undercuts the ultimate objective of the Convention: to rally the party behind one candidate and devise a plan for his victory in November.

In yesterday’s blog I wrote that in her speech, Michelle Obama brought out her husband’s “Teddy Bear side.” Well, apparently the Vermont Teddy Bear Company had been thinking the same thing. Today I received an e-mail from the company announcing that its specially designed Obama Bears ($109.95) are on the scene in Denver, and that, according to a Democratic National Convention Committee representative, “The Bears arrived in true Obama style. They had their sleeves rolled up and were ready to work hard.” Sounds kinda like what I said yesterday.

To be fair, the company also has McCain Teddy Bears, though they’re still awaiting their ticket to the Republican Convention in Minneapolis next month.