Obama over zijn inauguratie.

Once again our new president is giving his weekly address before his inauguration.  He reminds of us that the inauguration is about us and our rights to finally rule our nation.  He also reminds us that we have hard times ahead but that if we become a collective group we can survive even the Bush years of F-ups. 

In his final weekly address before assuming office, President-elect Barack Obama speaks about the upcoming Inauguration activities, a tradition at the heart of our democracy. Source: youtube.com/user/ChangeDotGov

From Change.gov: In his final weekly address before assuming office, President-elect Barack Obama speaks about the upcoming Inauguration activities, a tradition at the heart of our democracy. Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama Radio Address on Inauguration Week January 17, 2009 Good morning. On Tuesday, the world will be watching as America celebrates a rite that goes to the heart of our greatness as a nation. For the forty-third time, we will execute the peaceful transfer of power from one President to the next. The first Inauguration took place 220 years ago. Our nation’s capital had yet to be built, so President George Washington took the oath of office in New York City. It was a spring day, just over a decade after the birth of our nation, as Washington assumed the new office that he would do so much to shape, and swore an oath to the Constitution that guides us to this very day. Since then, Inaugurations have taken place during times of war and peace; in Depression and prosperity. Our democracy has undergone many changes, and our people have taken many steps in pursuit of a more perfect union. What has always endured is this peaceful and orderly transition of power. For us, it is easy to take this central aspect of our democracy for granted. But we must remember that our nation was founded at a time of Kings and Queens, and even today billions of people around the world cannot imagine their leaders giving up power without strife or bloodshed. Through the ages, many have struggled for the right to live in a land where power does not belong to one person or party, and many brave Americans have fought and died to help advance that right. Through the long twilight struggle of the Cold War, our transitions from one President to the next provided a stark contrast to the suffocating grip of Soviet Communism. And today, the resilience of our democracy stands in opposition to the extremists who would tear it down. Here at home, transitions also remind us that what we hold in common as Americans f.

Obama: Let Us Celebrate The Peaceful Transfer Of Power In his new Presidential YouTube Address, his last one before the inauguration, Barack Obama recognizes the importance of the transition of power, and how we often take the peaceful transfer of power for granted:"Through the ages, many have struggled for the right to live in a land where power does not belong to one person or party, and many brave Americans have fought and died to help advance that right," Obama says. "Through the long twilight struggle of the Cold War, our transitions from one President to the next provided a stark contrast to the suffocating grip of Soviet Communism. And today, the resilience of our democracy stands in opposition to the extremists who would tear it down."Obama And Biden On Whistle-Stop Tour Barack Obama and Joe Biden are traveling today by train from Philadelphia to Baltimore, in a whistle-stop tour for people who want to see the new president-elect but wouldn't have been able to go to the inauguration itself. The Philadelphia event began earlier this morning, with Obama scheduled to met Joe Biden in Delaware at 1 p.m. ET, with another event scheduled for 4:15 p.m. ET.Obama In Philly: The Election Should Only Be The Beginning Speaking to the crowd this morning in Philadelphia, Barack Obama declared that his election victory should only be the beginning of changing America for the better. "Starting now, let's take up in our own lives the work of perfecting our union," Obama said, according to the prepared remarks. "Let's build a government that is responsible to the people, and accept our own responsibilities as citizens to hold our government accountable. Let's all of us do our part to rebuild this country. Let's make sure this election is not the end of what we do to change America, but the beginning."Obama Creates Political Organizing Committee The Obama campaign is now being transformed into a new committee, "Organizing for America," which will leverage his database of 13 million e-mail addresses...

Oh god, the excitement is killing me. Inauguration is right around the corner. Since I can’t be there I will simply be glued to the TV as CNN and MSNBC cover the festivities. Today, Obama and Biden are going on a train ride from Philly to Washington. They will be making [...]

For the last time as president-elect, Barack Obama delivered the weekly radio address. Next time he does it, he'll be President Obama. Today, he talks about the meaning of the inauguration and the power of our American democracy (which is slowly starting to feel like a democracy again): At 10:15 a.m., the train carrying Obama is leaving Philadelphia on its way to D.C. There will be stops in Wilmington at 1:00 p.m. (to pick up Biden) and Baltimore at 4:15 p.m. The train is also doing "slow rolls" through Claymont, Delaware and Edgewood, Maryland. Obama and Biden arrive in D.C.'s Union Station at 7:00 p.m. And, Happy Birthday to our next first lady, Michelle Obama. UPDATE at 10:23 a.m.: Here's an excerpt from Obama's speech at the Philadelphia train station as he begins the trip to DC: We are here today not simply to pay tribute to our first patriots but to take up the work that they began. The trials we face are very different now, but severe in their own right. Only a handful of times in our history has a generation been confronted with challenges so vast. An economy that is faltering. Two wars, one that needs to be ended responsibly, one that needs to be waged wisely. A planet that is warming from our unsustainable dependence on oil. And yet while our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not. What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed. What is required is a new declaration of independence, not just in our nation, but in our own lives - from ideology and small thinking, prejudice and bigotry - an appeal not to our easy instincts but to our better angels. That is the reason I launched my campaign for the presidency nearly two years ago. I did so in the belief that the most fundamental American ideal, that a better life is in store for all those willing to work for it, was slipping out of reach. That Washington was serving the interests of the few, not the many. And that our politics had grown too small for the scale of the challenges w...