Will you be watching?

Ambitious promises, soaring exhortations, dire problems, soothing assurances. Every four years, a new or re-elected president gets to give a little speech we call the inaugural address. Most words are forgotten soon after spoken . But every once in a while there is that golden sound bite that echos long after the next election.
here is a collection of quotes for you: (If you are thinking, "Wow, that Sara is a smart historian." I can't take the credit. It was an article in the news paper today. I DO love history. I fond it VERY enlightening to read over these quotes and some of them STILL in this day speak volumes. And for the record I AM going to be listening very closely to MR. Change We Can Believe In.)

1. "We need a new government for a new century-humble enough not to try to solve our problems or us, but strong enough to give us the tools to solve our problems for ourselves; a government that is smaller, lives within it's means and does more with less."
2. "America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral purpose. We as a people have such a purpose today. it is to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the face of the world."
3. "We wish peace, but we wish the peace of justice, the peace of righteousness. We wish it because we think it is right and not because we are afraid. No weak nation that acts manfully and justly should ever fear us, and no strong power should ever be able to single us out as a subject for insolent aggression."
4. "The United States and other like-minded nations find themselves directly opposed by a regime with contrary aims and a totally different concept of life."
5. "Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
6. "Science seems ready to confer upon us, as it's final gift, the power to erase human life from this planet."
7. "so first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself-nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
8. "Let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
9. "All this will not be finished in the first 100 days. Nor will it be finished in the first 1000 days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin."

So are you dying to know who spoke these quotes? Could you hear Obama saying everyone? What if this was his speech, and just throw in some healthcare wordage and "Bring the troops home" and say economy a few times...Here are the real speakers.

1. Bill Clinton, 1997, second inaugural
2. George H.W. Bush, 1989
3. Theodore Roosevelt, 1905
4. Harry S. Truman,1949
5. John F. Kennedy, 1961
6. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, first inaugural
7. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933, first inaugural
8. Abraham Lincoln, 1865,second inaugural
9. John F. Kennedy, 1961

So what did you think? Doesn't it seem like any of these could be applied today? Looking back, we are still as a nation facing the same issues. Government to big for it's britches, Economic crisis, war, high taxes and high unemployment...

I am fascinated...riveted as to how Mr. President Obama is going to WORD his promises, and see where we are at the NEXT inauguration, What is HE going to succeed at where 44 others before him failed at. IS HE a Change We Can Believe In?

Frankly, it is NOT a job I'd like to have...

Will you be watching too?