President Obama’s public swearing-in ceremony begins at 11:30 am ET today. He officially started his second term yesterday with a private ceremony.

First Read: “Looking back at some of the most recent second inaugural addresses, they’ve typically been a continuation of that president’s first-term message (and re-election theme). For Bill Clinton, it was preparing the country for the 21st Century. For George W. Bush, it was security and freedom. And if that continuation theme is any guide, expect Obama to talk A LOT about rebuilding the middle class. After all, it was the central theme of his re-election campaign.”

Associated Press: “Inaugural addresses are not typically partisan, and White House aides
say Obama doesn’t intend to call out his political opponents. But they
say he will stand up for his values and vision that were supported by
the majority of voters in the November election. Obama’s prepared text
notes that spirited debate is a hallmark of a vibrant democracy, aides
say, but that the country’s leaders can’t let disagreement prevent them
from finding common ground to move the country forward. The president
also plans to encourage Americans to continue making their voices heard
to shape the debate as policy is made, aides said.”

Carrie Dann: “From drunken speeches to dead canaries, a guide to our quirky inaugural history.”

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.

First Read has more on last night’s news that Obama for America is reorganizing as a tax exempt advocacy group called Organizing for Action.

“Organizing for Action will be set up as a 501c4 group, but we are told the group will have full disclosure of its donors (either monthly or quarterly); setting it up a 501c4 (as opposed to a Super PAC) makes it easier to legally coordinate with the White House. But the Obama folks are conceding a big point here: They can’t do the things they want to do (like the organizing, etc.) inside the Democratic Party. If this version of OFA is successful, we’re also told then don’t be surprised if this becomes Obama’s personal vehicle post-presidency, a la Bill Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative.”

But as I note in The Cloakroom, if he’s not careful, the unprecedented move could end up derailing his agenda as much as advancing it.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), on of only two Native American members of Congress, said that the Washington Redskins should change its team name because it is racially offensive to the minority group, Roll Call reports.

Said Cole: “Come on. This is the 21st century. This is the capital of political correctness on the planet. It is very, very, very offensive. This isn’t like warriors or chiefs. It’s not a term of respect, and it’s needlessly offensive to a large part of our population. They just don’t happen to live around Washington, D.C.”

George Packer: “I hope Obama surprises us. I hope he throws out the kind of boilerplate that made last year’s convention speech one of the weaker ones in Charlotte. I hope that Obama the writer finds some vivid prose for the occasion; that Obama the thinker treats us like his intellectual equals, as he did in Philadelphia and Oslo; and that Obama the man allows himself the risk of deep feeling, as he did in Tucson and Newtown. Most of all, I hope Obama the politician is willing to say things that some people might not want to hear.”

A new New York Times/CBS News poll finds 51% of Americans approve of the way President Obama is doing is job with 41% disapproving.

“Mr. Obama’s job approval rating is similar to that of George W. Bush at the start of his second term, but much lower than the ratings of the previous two presidents who served eight years. (President Bill Clinton’s approval rate was 60 percent in January 1997 and Ronald Reagan’s was 62 percent in January 1985.) More than 8 in 10 Democrats approve of his job performance, 8 in 10 Republicans disapprove and independents are evenly divided.”

President Obama’s re-election campaign apparatus will relaunch this weekend as a tax-exempt group to support his second term legislative priorities, Politico reports.

The new organization will be separate from the DNC and will be headed by campaign manager Jim Messina.

Los Angeles Times: “If it is able to sustain the passion that propelled Obama twice into
the White House, the pro-Obama group may outstrip the role played by
traditional interest groups, from organized labor to the environmental
movement, and could form an independent power base outside the White
House and the Democratic Party.”

A new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 52% of Americans approve of President Obama’s overall job performance.

They also mostly agree with his agenda:

“Fifty-six percent believe that the laws covering the sale of firearms should be stricter, compared with a combined 42% who want them less strict or kept the same… Also, for the first time in the poll, a majority of Americans — 52% — favor allowing illegal immigrants who hold jobs to apply for legal status in this country.”

“And in the latest fiscal fight in Washington, more respondents say they would blame congressional Republicans (45%) than Obama and congressional Democrats (33%) if the nation’s debt limit isn’t raised and the country is unable to meet its obligations.”

When President Obama quoted Ronald Reagan on gun control yesterday, it wasn’t the first time. In fact, Ryan Teague Beckwith notes it’s one of his favorite rhetorical tricks. Obama has quoted Reagan on everything from the debt ceiling to infrastructure spending to the campaign trail.

A new Pew Research survey finds President Obama’s approval rate at 52%, his highest since the early months of his presidency. “His personal favorability, currently 59%, has rebounded from a low of 50% in the fall campaign. And increasing percentages describe him as a strong leader, able to get things done and as someone who stands up for his beliefs.”

Meanwhile, the Republican Party’s image, “which reached a recent high of 42% favorable following the GOP convention this past summer, has fallen once again to a low of just 33%. Much of this decline has come among Republicans themselves.”

Matthew Dowd gives President Obama 5 useful tips as he prepares to start his second term next week:

1. Turnover in staff and cabinet leadership. It is very important for a president to bring in new leaders in a second term.  The folks that served in the first term are tired, exhausted, and lack much of the creativity needed to energize a second term.

2. Second term scandals. Be constantly aware and diligent in avoiding scandals and big mistakes that could doom the second term no matter the personnel or vision in place.

3. Rediscover first term vision. It is also important for President Obama to look back at the biggest things he didn’t accomplish in his first term and renew an effort to get that done.

4. Simplify second term agenda. Many Presidents have beleaguered second terms because they bit off way more than they could chew. They try to do too many things, and they end up not doing any of them well. Doing a few simple and direct things in a second term is the path to success.

5. Legacy. The final item President Obama should focus on is what is his political legacy post the second term. Who are the new brand of leaders he is bringing in and getting ready to carry on what he began?

President Obama took no questions from Fox News at his most recent press conference and Smart Politics finds this was the norm during his first term.

“ABC reporters have been called on the most frequently during Barack Obama’s 36 solo news conferences (formal and otherwise) conducted during his first term, followed by CBS, the Associated Press, and NBC, with FOX News coming in at a distant ninth at less than half the rate of the top outlets and less than 40 percent of press conferences overall.”

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar “will step down from his cabinet position in the Obama administration and return to Colorado to spend time with his family,” the Denver Post reports.

President Obama had fewer press conferences during his first term than any other president since Ronald Reagan, Politico reports.

With Monday’s event, Obama has done a total of 79 over four years. That’s 10 fewer than George W. Bush, 54 fewer than Bill Clinton and 63 fewer than George H.W. Bush.

Reagan had only 27 press conferences during his first term.