David Maraniss:
“Even now, on Day 1,460 of his presidency, the question persists: Who
is he, really? There is a common refrain that Obama seems elusive, if
not mysterious; less easily categorized and understood than the last
Democratic president. Bill Clinton’s traits were so extra-large and
variegated, for better and worse, that something in him seemed to
connect to almost anybody and anything. No doubt Obama is a different
breed of cat. Aspects of his political personality are less vivid than
Clinton’s. But he is not overly elusive. His mystery is hiding in plain
sight. There is a pattern to his behavior, just as there was with
Clinton. Where Clinton was protean, Obama is more slowly evolving.
People tend to forget, or underestimate, that he had scant executive
experience before becoming president. Behind his veneer of ultra-cool
control he was struggling to figure things out. Now, after four years,
his presidential identity has started to approach its full shape, which
will become clearer from now to 2016.”

“We’ve talked a lot about this. We have spent a lot of time trying to figure out both what to pursue but also these issues of making sure you’re bringing the same sort of energy and same sort of focus as the first term. If you stay in that zone, I think you avoid a lot of those potential dangers.”

— White House adviser David Plouffe, quoted by the New York Times, on avoiding second term pitfalls.

“President Obama will be quietly sworn into office for a second term just before noon on Sunday in a brief White House ceremony, a day before Monday’s far showier public inaugural events, adhering to a long tradition of doing so out of the public eye when Jan. 20 falls on a Sunday,” the New York Times reports.

“The oath is to be administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in the Blue Room, an elegant, gilded space with a sweeping view of the South Lawn. The bare-bones ceremony, typically lasting no more than three minutes, will satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president’s swearing-in take place by noon on the Jan. 20 after an election.”

Washington Post: “The day began with a morning swearing-in ceremony for Vice President Joe Biden, committing him to four more years as the nation’s second in command. Biden then joined the president at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony on a crisp, sun-splashed January day.”

Associated Press: “Presidential terms are measured by sweeping laws and stirring events, but legacies are about enduring ideas. The one Barack Obama has in mind will drive most everything he tries to do in the next four years: assuring that America is a place where anyone can make it.”

“This is the playbook of a Democrat who thinks the basic compact between a nation and its people has been broken, who sees government as more of an aggressive force for good than a bureaucratic menace to society.”

“If you had told me a year and a half ago that the White House would be devoting time writing on how Lord Vader could fix our economic woes, I would have just laughed loudly at you.”

— A White House staffer, quoted by Mother Jones, reacting to the online petitions received by the White House.