"Cathinone", dari Tumbuhan sampai Zat Sintetis

http://sains.kompas.com/read/2013/01/30/14283372/Cathinone.dari.Tumbuhan.sampai.Zat.Sintetis?utm_source=WP&utm_medium=box&utm_campaign=Kknwp
ATIKA WALUJANI MOEDJIONO



KOMPAS.com - Cathinone menjadi perbincangan setelah tujuh orang ditahan usai penggerebekan di rumah seorang artis di Jakarta Selatan. Dua orang di antaranya terindikasi mengonsumsi derivat dari cathinone, yakni 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-methylcathinone. Zat sintetis itu juga dikenal sebagai methylone.

Cathinone, S(-)-alpha-aminopropiophenone, merupakan zat yang konfigurasi kimia dan efeknya mirip dengan amfetamin. Demikian laporan Kalix P dari Fakultas Farmakologi, Universitas Geneva, Swiss, dalam publikasi Pharmacology and Toxicology, edisi Februari 1992.

Secara alami cathinone terkandung dalam khat (Catha edulis Forsk), tumbuhan semak yang banyak terdapat di Afrika timur dan tengah serta sebagian Jazirah Arabia. Daun khat sejak dulu dikonsumsi dengan cara dikunyah, dibuat jus, atau diseduh seperti teh oleh penduduk di wilayah itu.

Adapun cathinone sintetis, sebagaimana disebut dalam situs European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), berbentuk serbuk kristal putih atau kecoklatan, kadang-kadang dikemas dalam kapsul. Zat itu juga ditemui dalam bentuk tablet sebagai pengganti pil ekstasi. Cara penggunaan biasanya dihirup, ditelan, atau disuntikkan setelah dicampur air.

Di banyak negara, khat bukan barang terlarang meski penggunaannya dikontrol di beberapa negara Eropa. Adapun cathinone dimasukkan sebagai golongan I Konvensi PPB untuk Zat-zat Psikotropika Tahun 1971. Cathine yang juga terdapat dalam khat masuk golongan III, sedangkan cathinone sintetis, yakni amfepramone dan pyrovalerone masuk golongan IV konvensi itu.

Cathinone yang dalam bahasa Indonesia dikenal sebagai katinona tercantum dalam Lampiran Undang-Undang Nomor 35 Tahun 2009 tentang Narkotika pada daftar narkotika golongan I.

Stimulan

Al Bachri Husein, pengajar di Bagian Psikiatri Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Indonesia/RS Cipto Mangunkusumo, yang dihubungi pada Selasa (29/1/2013) menyatakan, sejak tiga tahun atau empat tahun lalu ia sudah menangani gejala klinis akibat cathinone. Artinya, zat itu sudah lama ada di Indonesia.

”Cathinone merupakan zat stimulan untuk sistem saraf pusat yang banyak digunakan sebagai club drug atau party drug,” katanya.

Menurut Al Bachri, zat yang dibuat di laboratorium klandestin itu digunakan untuk ”membuat orang senang menjadi lebih senang”. Yang dirangsang adalah ujung-ujung saraf.

Efek mirip amfetamin itu menimbulkan rasa gembira, meningkatkan tekanan darah,

kewaspadaan, serta gairah seksual. Namun, hal itu bisa diikuti dengan depresi, mudah terganggu, anoreksia, dan kesulitan tidur.

Semula, demikian EMCDDA, cathinone sintetis digunakan sebagai obat. Amfepramone dan pyrovalerone digunakan sebagai obat pengurang nafsu makan. Adapun bupropion yang bersifat antidepresan digunakan untuk orang yang ingin berhenti merokok.

Namun, sejak pertengahan tahun 2000-an, derivat cathinone ilegal beredar di pasar zat rekreasi di Eropa. Zat yang banyak ditemukan adalah mephedrone dan methylone. Methylone digolongkan sebagai zat yang dikontrol di Denmark, Irlandia, Romania, dan Swedia, bersama sejumlah derivat cathinone lain. Jenis-jenis cathinone sintetis makin banyak beredar mulai tahun 2009.

Merusak kesehatan

Laporan mengenai keracunan dan bahaya bagi kesehatan akibat penggunaan cathinone sintetis menyebabkan zat tersebut menjadi isu kesehatan masyarakat dan keamanan yang serius di Amerika Serikat.

Dalam situs National Institute on Drug Abuse dilaporkan, efek cathinone mirip amfetamin dan kokain. Zat itu merangsang peningkatan kadar neurotransmitter (zat pengantar impuls saraf) dopamin yang menimbulkan rasa gembira dan meningkatkan tenaga. Efek lain adalah peningkatan kadar norepinefrin meningkatkan detak jantung dan tekanan darah. Namun, pengguna bisa mengalami halusinasi akibat peningkatan kadar serotonin. Akibat buruk lain adalah dehidrasi, kerusakan jaringan otot, dan gagal ginjal yang berujung pada kematian.

”Penggunaan cathinone dalam jangka lama dan berlebihan menyebabkan kerusakan sel otak. Akibatnya, orang menjadi paranoid dan berhalusinasi. Gejala yang lebih ringan, pengguna merasa lemas jika tidak mengonsumsi,” kata Al Bachri.

Psikiater Danardi Sosrosumihardjo menyatakan, cathinone sintetis bukan diekstrak dari daun khat, melainkan disusun dari zat-zat prekursor.

Jika cathinone alami merupakan stimulan potensi rendah, bahkan lebih ringan dari alkohol dan tembakau, tidak demikian dengan zat sintetisnya. ”Tujuan pembuatan sintetis dari cathinone adalah memperkuat efek serta menghindari aturan hukum,” ujar Danardi.

Menurut National Institute on Drug Abuse, pada Juli 2012, cathinone sintetis, yaitu pyrovalerone dan mephedrone, dinyatakan sebagai zat ilegal bersama sejumlah zat sintetis lain. Meski UU yang baru ditandatangani Presiden Barack Obama itu melarang zat-zat kimia yang analog dengan zat tersebut, diramalkan para pembuat akan merancang derivat baru yang cukup berbeda untuk menghindari jerat hukum.

Sebagai contoh, saat mephedrone dilarang di Inggris tahun 2010, segera muncul zat kimia disebut naphyrone untuk menggantikannya. Zat itu dijual dengan istilah ”jewelry cleaner” dengan merek Cosmic Blast.

Pemerintah Indonesia bisa belajar dari pengalaman negara lain.

Jokowi & A Hok handle banjir sementara tunggu Anggaran disahkan...

https://www.facebook.com/paul.zacharia/posts/10200450067800726

Nggak lama setelah @janes_cs sharing tentang 100 Hari Jokowi, temannya yang juga reporter stasiun TV berita yang saat ini bertugas meliput Ahok selama menjabat sebagai Wakil Gubernur DKI juga ikut berbagi cerita pengalamannya menjadi ‘follower’ Ahok. 

Berikut kisah dari @indahbeauty di timeline Twitternya yang diproteksi itu, dimulai dari percakapannya dengan Janes…

Baik Jokowi maupun Ahok, memang peduli ya, Janes, sama kuli tinta kayak kita. 

Kalau di Ahok, selalu ingatkan stafnya untuk kasih lunch buat wartawan. Bukannya kita kuli tinta yang nempel Ahok, ngeliput cuma buat dapat lunch. Tapi kepeduliannya itu, yang jarang kita temui di pejabat-pejabat lain. 

Poinnya, mereka anggap kita bukan sekadar pencari berita, tapi penghargaan mereka akan kerja keras kita dihargai. 

Boss tempat kita kerja aja, nggak segitu-gitunya merhatiin kita ya, Janes. *Peluk Jokowi-Ahok.*

Ahok juga suka marah-marah sama kepala dinas yang nggak becus. Tapi dia nggak ragu muji, sama kepala dinas yang sudah diomelin, terus balik kerja bagus.

Gue salut sama Jokowi-Ahok, yang bisa atasi banjir, padahal APBD belum ketok palu. 

Meski belum sempurna, ya tapi memang tidak ada sesuatu yang sempurna. Yang penting bagi Jokowi-Ahok, kerja buat masyarakat, yang untung harus masyarakat, bukan pemerintahnya yang untung. 
Itu kata Ahok, loh.

Kemarin seharian ngobrol sama Ahok. Salut, bagaimana dia kerahkan segala upaya untuk bantu evakuasi pengungsi. Ingat, dana APBD belum turun, loh! Ahok memang nggak bawa media saat mengungsikan 2000 warga dari waduk Pluit pakai kapal Dishub dan pinjam kapal pengusaha lewat laut. 

Yang utama saat itu bagi Ahok adalah bagaimana menyelamatkan nyawa warganya, bukan pemberitaan yang ujung-ujungnya nanti dikira pencitraan.

Kata Ahok, “bawa media dikira pencitraan. Nggak ada pemberitaan dikira nggak kerja.” 

Tapi pada tahu nggak, Ahok bantu evakuasi dari pagi sampai malam? Cuma mau nanya sama yang suka nyinyir (menyindir) sama Jokowi-Ahok, kalian mau nggak kerja keras buat warga seperti itu? Cuma mau nanya aja, sih.
Jadi Ahok cerita, pas Kamis, dia sampai Balai Kota, kondisi sudah banjir. Listrik mati, jadi dia disuruh Jokowi balik ke utara, pantau banjir. 

Sampai Pluit, kondisi banjir sudah tinggi. Dia pun kerahkan segala upaya, evakuasi warga waduk Pluit yang sudah terkepung banjir. 

Dengan bantuan kapal Dishub dan kapal-kapal pengusaha, tembok komplek Pantai Mutiara, dijebol buat mengangkut sekitar 2000 warga.

Hanya sekitar dua jam, warga-warga tersebut diangkut ke tempat yang lebih aman. Lalu Ahok juga cari pasir dan batu buat tanggul Laturharhary. Dalam kerjanya, Jokowi dan Ahok, memang membagi tugas. Ahok fokus ke banjir di Jakarta Barat dan Jakarta Utara.

Sejak banjir melanda daerah Pluit dan Muara Baru, Ahok keliling memohon warga untuk mau dievakuasi, mumpung air belum terlalu tinggi. Tapi warga banyak yang menolak, takut hartanya dijarah. Itu bikin Ahok kesal. 
Makanya dia ajak Wakapolda keliling untuk meyakinkan warga, bahwa aman. Tapi dasar warga bandel. Dan juga manja. Jadi kalau ada yang ngetweet, belum dapat bantuan jangan langsung percaya. 

Mereka rata-rata menolak dievakuasi. Alasannya, takut harta bendanya dijarah. Jadi mereka maunya relawan bolak-balik distribusi makanan sehari 3 kali. Tugas relawan ‘kan buat evakuasi warga. Bukan petugas delivery makanan. 

Makanya ada tempat pengungsian, biar diatur dengan baik. Kalau setiap hari relawan harus antar makanan ke warga yang bertahan di rumahnya, 3 kali sehari, terus bagaimana proses evakuasi warga? Makanya masyarakat, harus bisa diajak kerjasamanya. Nggak cuma kalian yang butuh bantuan. Masih banyak warga lain yang butuh. Sementara, sarana terbatas. Be wise, lah.

Jadi dari Kamis sampai Minggu, Ahok konsentrasi di daerah utara dan barat. Bahkan, mengajak warga Pluit untuk mau dipindahkan ke rusun yang disiapkan. Rusunnya nggak main-main, loh. Sudah full-furnished, mulai dari perabot sampai sembako, baju, dll. Pokoknya tinggal bawa badan aja. Artinya, pemerintah nggak main-main, ingin mensejahterakan warganya. Tapi kadang niat ini, dikritik sinis, sama orang-orang yang nggak paham.

Ahok pernah cerita, sebenarnya, dia bukannya marah-marah kalau ngomong. Sebagai orang pesisir, memang begitu cara dia bicara. 
Cuma orang suka salah tafsir.

Ahok juga ramah, baik sama kuli tinta, atau dengan siapapun warga yang datang mengadu kepadanya. Buat dia, pelayanan masyarakat lebih penting. Ahok juga nggak kaku, kalau diajak foto-foto sama warga. Sama kayak Jokowi. Pokoknya orangnya menyenangkan dan pekerja keras.

Saya sering ikut pejabat, tapi saya kagum dengan Ahok dan Jokowi, yang punya komitmen besar untuk kesejahteraan masyarakat. Kata Ahok, kami kerja buat untung masyarakat, bukan untung pemerintahan. Yang penting masyarakat bisa hidup layak. Beda dengan pejabat lain, yang kadang menjaga jarak dengan kuli tinta kayak saya. Sejak mengikuti Ahok, nggak ada, tuh, jaim-jaiman.

Bahkan nggak jarang, kita diajak masuk ke ruangannya untuk lihat dia kerja. Pernah dia bongkar kulkasnya, dan ngobrol-ngobrol santai sama wartawan. Pokoknya membumi banget. Saya ngomong begini, bukan maksud apa-apa, tapi saya lihat bagaimana Ahok dan Jokowi, kerja keras benahi Ibukota.

Wartawan lantai 2, biasa kita sebut yang suka mengikuti Ahok, suka panggil Ahok “Daddy Bas” atau “Kokoh”.

Pembagian tugas Jokowi-Ahok, kalau Jokowi “blusukan”, Ahok lebih mengurus soal anggaran. Dan bagaimana caranya bisa melakukan penghematan. Dan nantinya, uang penghematan itu, bisa dialokasikan ke program-program yang lebih bermanfaat buat masyarakat. Seperti KJP, KJS, dll. 

Dan kalian tahu nggak, sih, kalau sampai sekarang RAPBD belum diketok palu? 
Artinya anggaran belum keluar. Pernah tanya nggak, bagaimana pajak online bisa jalan? Terus integrasi bus sedang bisa jalan, banjir kemarin, meski belum sempurna, tapi lumayan, lah… Ingat, loh, anggaran belum ada. Itulah hebatnya Jokowi-Ahok, yang bisa lakukan berbagai upaya, meski anggaran belum turun.

Saat ditanya, siapa yang harus disalahkan banjir di Jakarta. Dengan tegas dan besar hati, Ahok bilang, itu salah pemimpin Jakarta, yaitu Jokowi-Ahok. Kata Ahok, sejak hari pertama dilantik, bila ada kesalahan anak buah atau apapun, itu tanggung jawab pemimpin. Mana ada coba pemimpin yang mau mengakui kesalahannya, meski belum tentu itu kesalahan mereka. So gentleman.

Buat Daddy Bas dan Oom Jokowi, selamat 100 hari kepemimpinan. Setia dengan komitmen awal dan jangan terlena. Semangat!!!

Oh ya, tempo hari Ahok mengundang wartawan makan siang bersama. 
Dia meminta kritikan dan masukan dari kami tentang hasil kerja mereka. Ahok juga minta kita kasih informasi fakta di lapangan, yang mungkin luput dari perhatian mereka. Ahok sangat terbuka dengan segala kritik dan masukan. 

Bagi Ahok, menjadi Wagub bukan sekadar jabatan, tapi amanah menjadi pelayan masyarakat yang baik, agar masyarakat sejahtera dan hidup lebih layak.
Perjalanan Jokowi-Ahok masih panjang, masyarakat tetap harus kritis dan mengontrol kepemimpinan mereka. Agar tetap pada komiten awal.

Oh iya satu lagi, Ahok itu punya kakak muslim dan kyai, loh… Jadi yang suka pakai SARA buat menyerang Ahok, be wise, lah…

"One Today"

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/22/poet-hearing-stonewall-in-obamas-speech-was-simply-amazing/
Richard Blanco

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning's mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
the pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem for all of us today.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same light on blackboards with lessons for the day:
equations to solve, history to question, or atoms imagined,
the "I have a dream" we all keep dreaming,
or the impossible vocabulary of sorrow that won't explain
the empty desks of twenty children marked absent
today, and forever. Many prayers, but one light
breathing color into stained glass windows,
life into the faces of bronze statues, warmth
onto the steps of our museums and park benches
as mothers watch children slide into the day.

One ground. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk
of corn, every head of wheat sown by sweat
and hands, hands gleaning coal or planting windmills
in deserts and hilltops that keep us warm, hands
digging trenches, routing pipes and cables, hands
as worn as my father's cutting sugarcane
so my brother and I could have books and shoes.

The dust of farms and deserts, cities and plains
mingled by one wind—our breath. Breathe. Hear it
through the day's gorgeous din of honking cabs,
buses launching down avenues, the symphony
of footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,
the unexpected song bird on your clothes line.

Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,
or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we open
each day for each other, saying: hello, shalom,
buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos días
in the language my mother taught me—in every language
spoken into one wind carrying our lives
without prejudice, as these words break from my lips.

One sky: since the Appalachians and Sierras claimed
their majesty, and the Mississippi and Colorado worked
their way to the sea. Thank the work of our hands:
weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report
for the boss on time, stitching another wound
or uniform, the first brush stroke on a portrait,
or the last floor on the Freedom Tower
jutting into the sky that yields to our resilience.

One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyes
tired from work: some days guessing at the weather
of our lives, some days giving thanks for a love
that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother
who knew how to give, or forgiving a father
who couldn't give what you wanted.

We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk, but always, always—home,
always under one sky, our sky. And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.

In Petraeus downfall, hubris meets high tech

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-in-petraeus-dowfall-hubris-meets-high-tech/2012/11/11/ad63214c-2c4e-11e2-a99d-5c4203af7b7a_story.html

By Ruth Marcus, Published: November 12

Think Sophocles in cyberspace.

The fall of David Petraeus is part Greek tragedy, part cautionary tale about the omnipresence of modern technology.

The tragic part is classic: the protagonist who believes himself invincible, not subject to the rules governing ordinary mortals. Hubris is part of the human condition. Each of us is captive to the capacity for self-delusion. Every hero has a fatal flaw, every Achilles his heel. If the hero is a man, it’s a safe bet that it involves susceptibility to the opposite sex.

The technological part is something that we have not yet fully internalized, although Petraeus, of all people, ought to have known: There are no true secrets in the modern world.

Privacy is an illusion that we allow ourselves to avoid the alternative of paralysis. Every communication is potentially public. Like the gift of fire, technology is a magical device that, if not used carefully, contains the seeds of our own destruction.

At the risk of arm-chair psychologizing, it is easy to imagine the inexorable path to Petraeus’ resignation. He is a gifted man who also possessed the gift of good positioning: the cadet who married the superintendent’s daughter, the young officer with a knack for attaching himself to the right mentor, the general who understood that giving reporters your e-mail address and responding with alacrity could garner good publicity.

How fitting that the consummate networker was undone by another. Paula Broadwellmet her fellow West Point graduate at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, when she was among the students invited to a dinner after a Petraeus speech.

“I introduced myself to then-Lt. Gen. Petraeus and told him about my research interests,” Broadwell wrote in her biography of Petraeus. He proffered his business card. She followed up.

In retrospect, how could Petraeus not have been taken with a female doppelganger, a woman who could keep pace with his six-minute miles and match him pushup for pushup? “Petraeus once joked I was his avatar,” Broadwell told The Charlotte Observer earlier this year.

We don’t know who seduced whom, but history suggests that the way to a man’s heart is through his ego. History further suggests that, well let’s call it ego, tends to trump intelligence when sex is involved. Beware the woman who goes on “The Daily Show” wearing a black silk halter top and flaunting her toned triceps. Men should know better, but, it seems, they rarely do.

On the matter of knowing better, let’s talk about technology. Classic tragedy, indeed classic literature, hinges on imperfect knowledge. Oedipus fulfills the oracle’s prophecy and kills his father because he does not realize he is Laius’ son. In the modern world, DNA testing would have solved the riddle.

In a fascinating interview with The Post’s Neely Tucker last year, writer Ann Patchett described how the omnipresence of technology — the constant contact enabled by cellphones and e-mail, the instant knowledge powered by Googling and tweeting — had made it difficult for her to craft convincing fiction. Plot twists fail in a world without secrets.

This may be the plight of the modern author, but for the modern individual, particularly the modern public figure, the ubiquity of technology exacts a different toll — not on plot but on privacy. E-mails and texts can be forwarded, archived, retrieved. Phone logs are easily obtainable. The veil of anonymity is fragile; as with the threatening e-mails Broadwell allegedly sent, it can be shredded with a few keystrokes of a capable cybersleuth.

Intellectually, we get it. If you don’t want to see it on the front page of The Post, don’t write it down. Yet in practice, this admonition is almost impossible to observe. So much of what passes for personal interaction has migrated to cyberspace, we cannot stop ourselves from communicating this way. In the solitude of our laptops or our iPhones, we fall prey to the delusion of confidentiality.

Former Rep. Mark Foley sent suggestive instant messages to male pages. Former Rep.Anthony Weiner tweeted sexually suggestive photos to Twitter followers. Former Rep. Chris Lee e-mailed a photo of himself, shirtless, to a woman he met on Craigslist.

We have, so far, been spared details about Petraeus’ foibles; we can hope he was not quite so self-indulgently juvenile. But it is safe to assume he won’t be the last public figure brought low by the seductive twin traps of modern technology and good old-fashioned hubris.

ruthmarcus@washpost.com

Notes on Inauguration [continued]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-speech-reveals-a-different-leader/2013/01/21/273bb698-63d4-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html

By Dan Balz, Published: January 22

Ricky Carioti/Washington Post

President Obama has never lacked for confidence, but rarely has that attribute been on display as clearly as on Monday in an inaugural address that underscored the distance he has traveled after four contentious years in office.

This was not the politician who campaigned in 2008 on themes of transcending the divisive politics of the past, though there were ritual calls for the country and its political leaders to seize this moment together. Instead, it was a president who has accepted the reality of those divisions and is determined to prevail on his terms.

Obama’s first campaign was aspirational, and he came to office believing, or at least hoping, that through force of personality he could gently guide the opposing sides to consensus on issues that had long resisted resolution. Monday’s speech conveyed the ambitions of a president looking at his next four years with a sense of frustration and impatience, and who now believes that a different style of leadership is required.

In his speech, Obama set out his priorities for a second term, goals that will cheer the liberal wing of the Democratic Party and probably alarm many on the right. He challenged Republicans to meet him partway, though not exactly in the middle. If there was an underlying message Monday, it was not “Come, let us reason together.” It was “Follow me.” The question is whether he will be any more successful in his second term than he was in his first.

Pressure on Republicans

There are reasons for the president setting a different tone in his second inaugural than in his first. Two years after he and his party took a beating in the midterm elections, he now holds the strongest hand in Washington. His approval ratings have climbed above 50 percent, while his Republican opponents in Congress remain mired in disapproval ratings almost three times as high as their approval ratings.

Obama once hoped that he could overcome the united opposition of congressional Republicans, whose militant House members set the party’s tone during the battles of the past two years, through negotiation with GOP leaders. Now he is looking to the country to pressure his opponents to compromise in ways that they would not during his first term.

Republicans have already tested the reelected president and discovered the limits of their power. Their decision not to pick a fight — for now — over the debt ceiling signaled their recognition of that reality. It was an acknowledgment that the tactic of opposing Obama at almost every turn may be self-defeating.

Obama appears ready to try to split the Republican coalition by setting pragmatists against ideologues. On Monday, he rebuked those who have been most aggressive in their opposition when he said, “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.”

Republicans will have to choose their battles more carefully, and they may prevail in some cases. Obama knows that he won’t get all he wants, but the balance of power at the start of his second term is far different from what it was 24 months ago.

The year ahead promises more debates over the size and scope of government, issues that dominated the past two years in Washington. Obama acknowledged the need to deal with spending and the deficit, but he also set out terms for the coming fight over federal entitlements.

During the campaign, Obama talked about the philosophical divide between Republicans and Democrats on these issues, as he condemned the broken politics of Washington. He said the American people could break the tie with the election.

But the election returned a majority of Republicans to the House, and on Monday the president seemed to suggest that there were grounds for compromise. “Progress,” he said, “does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.”

Addressing his coalition

Obama’s second inaugural address also reflected a changing America and the coalition that reelected him to office. The nation’s first African American president leads an ever-more diverse population and a country in which attitudes and mores continue to change, particularly among the youngest segment of society.

The policy agenda he put forth, and the values he enunciated, spoke directly to that coalition. Never before has a president used an inaugural address to speak so openly about the cause of gay rights, linking the 1969 Stonewall uprising that led to the gay rights movement with Selma and civil rights and the 1839 Seneca Falls Convention and women’s rights.

Not all Americans agree with these changes, and as president, Obama must attempt to speak for them and to them. But his remarks Monday suggest that he believes history is on his side on these issues.

The president’s second inaugural address was notable also for what he talked about only in brief. Four years ago, he stood on the Capitol’s West Front with the country facing an economic crisis. Output was falling, the stock market had plunged, many Americans were threatened with housing foreclosures, and unemployment was rising rapidly. He talked about “a sapping of confidence across our land.”

On Monday, he touched only lightly on that crisis and spoke of the economy in positive terms. “An economic recovery has begun,” he said. At a time when jobs remain a top priority for most Americans, he chose neither to highlight that problem nor to offer any new solutions — though, ultimately, he will be judged on his effectiveness in restoring the economy to its full strength.

Opponents will find much to dislike about what Obama said Monday, for this was not a speech aimed at mollifying those who lost the election. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who lost the presidential race four years ago, expressed disappointment that Obama was not more explicit about bringing the two sides together. “I would have liked to have seen more on outreach and working together,” McCain said. But the senator added, “It’s his privilege to say what he wants.”

Obama risks overreaching or over-interpreting his mandate, which can be an affliction of newly reelected presidents. His victory in November was decisive but not overwhelming. Self-confidence can slip over the line to arrogance or hubris. Second terms often disappoint. So there are dangers ahead for the president.

On Monday, he set out his ambitions for a second term in clear language. What follows will define how history judges both those priorities and his ability to turn them into action.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/first-lady-michelle-obama-serves-as-fashion-icon/2013/01/21/655215dc-6413-11e2-85f5-a8a9228e55e7_story.html

By Robin Givhan, Published: January 22

First lady Michelle Obama stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during President Obama’s second-term swearing-in, holding the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s black leather Bible in her magenta-gloved hands. The smaller Lincoln Bible rested atop it. Michelle Obama said nothing during the hour-long inaugural ceremony. But in the sea of black topcoats and C-SPAN stodginess, she stood out — statuesque bearing, new bangs accentuating her cheekbones, and grooming attuned to both the history books and high-definition TV.

After rallying the country to fight childhood obesity, speaking about the value of mentoring and championing the contributions of military families, she was once again in the spot where she had stood four years ago: A silent symbol of an administration’s mood and manner, a template of patriotism, a standard-bearer for femininity.

Wearing a navy Thom Browne coat cut from custom-made jacquard and a coordinating dress, she was a more subdued, more reserved presence than in 2009. She had traded in the bright, idealistic sheen of the lemongrass Isabel Toledo ensemble for one that was structured, relatively spare and unadorned except for the black, bejeweled J. Crew belt she added after the morning’s prayer service.

And for the evening’s two inaugural balls, she chose a patriotic red chiffon and velvet gown that highlighted her shoulders with its spare neckline. It was created by Jason Wu, the same young New York-based designer she catapulted from near anonymity into a household name when he crafted her first inaugural gown.

It was a stately choice, thanks to its classic first lady hue. But it had sophisticated sex appeal and was a far cry from the idealistic sweetness exuded by Wu’s first gown, the ivory, embroidered dress now in the National Museum of American History.

In four years, her style had shifted from fizzy hope to glimmering grown-up pragmatism.

During the day, her clothes echoed her husband’s. The Thom Browne coat was created from tie silk and echoed his discreet blue neckwear. As expected, the president wore a sober black overcoat, dark suit and black gloves, with a tiny American flag pin dotting his lapel. Their daughters, Sasha and Malia, finished the family portrait wearing coats in shades of lilac and violet. The elegant silhouettes underscored their new maturity.

Still, the first lady’s clothes stand apart. Observers obsess about Michelle Obama’s wardrobe because it offers clues to the personality of a public woman — a historic woman — who remains a resolutely private person. In an era of televised confessionals, she has never laid herself bare. But thankfully, her clothes, with their quirks and eccentric embellishments, do not adhere to unwritten protocol or dowdy traditions that have so often left first ladies little more than beige cyphers.

For four years, Obama’s clothes have connected with the public in contemporary terms, in the language of Hollywood’s progressive glamour, Seventh Avenue’s bold entrepreneurship and the democracy of the mass market.

In the constant tug of war between style and substance, Obama has proved they can be one and the same.

More than any other first lady in history, Obama has pushed the American fashion industry into the international spotlight. With a global reach unlike any actor or musician — and an authenticity untouched by endorsement deals or fealty to a single brand — she carried the creative skills, the technical wizardry and the earnest ambitions of Seventh Avenue stalwarts and upstarts into Buckingham Palace, the center of the Holy See, the neighborhoods of Ghana and into fashion’s very heart of darkness . . . Paris.

Obama has celebrated a distinctly contemporary version of American style — a sensibility rooted in comfort and practicality, wholly removed from the Old World formality that still percolates within French fashion and apart from the flashy sex appeal and bella figura tailoring that are the twin pillars of Italian aesthetics.

In her embrace of fashion, Obama does not ask designers to adapt their sensibilities to her own desires. Instead, she — or her emissary — encourages their best efforts and, most often, they rise to the occasion. Reed Krakoff created the custom-made, ultramarine silk day dress and cashmere cardigan she wore to the private swearing-in Sunday. Crafted in Krakoff’s New York atelier, the ensemble acknowledged the first lady’s affection for a cardigan and an easy dress, but it was also an accurate reflection of the American designer’s sportswear roots.

Browne’s aesthetic is also born of American tradition, inspired by Ivy League tailoring, button-down shirts and varsity-letter cardigans. Browne made his reputation in menswear, launching his brand in 2001 with his shrunken, schoolboy suits. He’s a designer whose small business — and multiple side projects — speaks to the struggle and tenacity required to succeed in the fashion industry. Last year, Browne received a Cooper-Hewitt Design Award for his fashion and was feted at the White House, along with other winners, by the first lady.

Obama’s ability to bring a significant financial windfall to the many mass-market labels she wears has been documented by a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. She is the first East Wing occupant to wield such economic clout in part because she lives in an age when a single image can be tweeted around the world.

Obama is a fashion icon — for all of the attention, discomfort and power that phrase might suggest. But she has been dogged by skepticism and disappointment that her work has not been substantive, that it has not been worthy of her educational pedigree. The fascination with her clothes has only fueled that debate.

But is substance being confused with controversy? Obama did not dive into the roiling seas of health-care reform as former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton did. But is tackling a pathology that threatens the life expectancy of generations of children any less significant?

Whether Obama will add a fourth or fifth item to her list of priorities is under discussion among her staff. “The first lady is exploring ways that she can make a real difference for Americans,” said Kristina Schake, Obama’s communications director, “not just for these next four years, but for years to come.”

Make no mistake; Obama would be loath to declare her interest in fashion a “priority.” And it is hard to imagine that she would willingly become the face of a campaign promoting this country’s $350 billion fashion industry. But style is a tool African American media use for pushing back against generations of stereotypes about black women.

As Michelle Ebanks, president of Essence Communications, noted, admiring words about the glossy images of a first-lady-lawyer-mother have become a near mantra in her home — repeated not to daughters, but to sons. Style is dignity, self-respect and confidence.

While Obama did not invent the sleeveless sheath, she gave it distinctive verve by pairing it with lean, sculpted arms. Those arms, which powered her through celebrity push-up competitions and surely must have hugged a million White House visitors, set her apart from the generation of women who preceded her into the White House. Obama revels in her athleticism, her physical fitness. Style is a synonym for health and vigor.

Indeed, Obama has done more than any other contemporary figure to normalize fashion — to move it from an outlier industry of flamboyant personalities and indecipherable verbiage to one that is discussed in the public domain with the same respectful tone applied to technology, architecture or even sports.

There is still a long way to go, of course. Cheating sports stars conjure up congressional hearings and require an interrogation by Oprah, while the fashion industry struggles to get limited trademark protections for its most unique designs. Professional women still feign fashion ineptitude as a sign of their workday gravitas.

But by giving style a prominent place in her public life, even when standing silently on a cold January day, Obama remains both eloquent and significant.

Givhan is a freelance writer.

Notes on Inauguration

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/20/politics/inauguration-divided-america/index.html

Voices of Ashburn, Virginia



Ashburn, Virginia (CNN) -- The alternating red and blue yard signs are long gone, and people here have gone back to familiar rhythms of life. Long morning commutes, after school soccer games and maybe a family dinner at Clyde's Willow Creek Farm.

But, as Barack Obama begins his second term, the air is decidedly unchanged in this northern Virginia community of tidy subdivisions and endless rows of townhouses.

After a viciously fought, pavement-pounding political campaign, the people are left divided, the gulf between them wide like the grassy medians that separate left and right sides of the roads that lead to the nation's capital.

There is the reliably Republican old Ashburn. Some of those folks remember lush fields and woods brimming with redbuds and ash. Legend has it the place took its name from an old ash struck by lightning so hard that it smoldered for a week.

There is the new divided Ashburn that looks like America's new normal. An explosion of growth in the last two decades turned this place from a largely white conservative constituency to one that is darker-skinned and comprised of more professional women. They call themselves progressive thinkers and are a big reason that Obama in 2008 became the first Democrat to win here -- and in the state of Virginia -- since Lyndon B. Johnson's victory in 1964.

This time, the commonwealth again hung in the balance. Loudoun County was a battleground within a battleground. Ashburn was its epicenter.

In the end, Obama took Virginia with 51% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 47%, but Obama won in Ashburn's nine precincts by a mere 212 votes. In the Belmont Ridge precinct, the difference was six votes. That's how close it was here.

The people in Ashburn hold widely differing visions of how to steer America in the next four years, but they are tired of the partisan bickering in the halls of power in Washington. They wonder what happened to the voices of reason, the voices of moderation.

About eight in 10 people see partisan divide as the largest conflict among Americans, according to a Pew Research Center survey released last week.

As Obama takes the inaugural oath Monday, the wish from divided Ashburn is voiced in unison: Mr. President, they say, "We want you to work with Congress. We want you to fix America."

America, the patient

Mike Oberschneider, 44, founded his Ashburn psychology practice in a suite of offices atop a strip-mall grocery called Giant. He was attracted to the area for the same reasons so many others are: a high standard of living, good schools and Washington just 40 miles away.

 

Psychologist Mike Oberschneider says he'd like to do a group therapy session with the president and members of Congress to help them talk in reasonable terms.

Ashburn boasts the nation's highest median household income, in part because of dual incomes. Many here work for the federal government, defense contractors and tech companies. Facebook, Amazon, Wikipedia and Microsoft all have data centers in the area. More than 50% of the world's Internet data runs through Loudoun County.

But it is also a place where housing and the costs of daily life are high and when the economy started its downward plunge, people felt the stress.

Oberschneider believes the wave of optimism Obama rode in 2008 quickly waned as the recession choked America.

One day gas was $3.50; the next month, it was $4.50, he says. One day the Dow closed at 12,000. The next it plunged to 8,000. It all made for an uncertainty that began to commandeer people's lives.

"Mitt Romney and Barack Obama entered the room a lot more than I thought they would," Oberschneider says of his sessions with patients. "We're not feeling confident as a nation that we're doing well."

Oberschneider, who voted for Obama in 2008 but not in 2012, says the president was dealt a bad hand. He took office last time just when the recession was taking hold. "But he played it all wrong," Oberschneider believes. And it got too negative and too aggressive all too quickly.

Before Obama places his hand on the Bible on Monday and begins his second term as president, Oberschneider wants to tell him this:

"I'd like to see you stretch your ideological bandwidth," he says. "Holding on to an ideology, even though it's true to your heart, is not the right approach."

He sees America like one of his patients -- perhaps an alcoholic or someone in a failing marriage. The patient is in bad shape and Obama needs to help.

"I don't think it mattered who won -- Obama or Romney. We'd be facing the same problems," he says.

"As a nation, we need to get more responsible. Debate less. Agree more."

They all eat BBQ but they don't vote the same way

Not far from where that ash tree is said to have smoldered, there's a blazing fire at Danny Hurdle's barbecue joint. Everything here is pig. Pig aprons, pig signs, pig candy holders. A chalkboard next to the entrance proclaims: "Today's pig was from South Mills, N.C."

Not really, Hurdle laughs. His grandkids wrote that to honor their pop-pop's hometown.

What's now Carolina Brothers Pit Barbeque used to be a landmark in Ashburn: the Partlow Brothers store. They sold groceries, hardware, gas, oil. Hurdle, 64, is a stonemason by trade but bought the Partlow building six years ago and took up barbecue.

From Hurdle's place, it's easy to imagine the old Ashburn. Some of the Victorian houses have been restored with curatorial care, though many of the old buildings were torn down. There are still trees and greenery here along Ashburn Road, but perhaps not for long.

NV Homes planted a trailer a stone's throw from Hurdle's place to build 18 high-end homes in a newly developed cul-de-sac. All 18 are stamped sold on the site plan.

Hurdle can feel the changes sweeping Ashburn. He can see it every day in his restaurant. On this day, there is a young Sikh boy, a Muslim man and working women on a lunch break. He added beef and chicken to his menu to keep up with changing dietary needs. "Not everyone eats pig," he says. "But they all eat barbecue."

He also thought they would all vote for Romney.

"I was surprised the election was so close," he adds.

He shows off a picture of a sign that a friend sent him: "Guns allowed on premises." It's in line with Hurdle's values. One of the reasons he voted for Romney was because he is against abortion, he says.

Employee Jen Steele pipes up. She's 23 and working her way through nursing school. She grew up in a Republican family but says her generation has gone beyond aligning with parties.

"For me, it's issues," she says, working the cash register. "I didn't vote for Romney."

"For the same reason I voted for him," Hurdle says.

Steele voted for the GOP in 2008 but was turned off by comments from Republican politicians on rape and abortion. It felt like an assault on women.

She thought Obama delivered a message of inclusiveness, like he cared for everyone no matter what their station in life. She even saw a TV ad he made entirely in Spanish.

"But he's got his work cut out for him," she says.

Hurdle answers: "Maybe we need term limits in Congress."

The new Americans

Attorney John Whitbeck, 36, makes it a point to show up at events like Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, where he tries to tout the merits of the GOP. South Asians tend to vote Democratic.

Republican state delegate David Ramadan filed a bill this year that would officially recognize Diwali day.

Whitbeck, chairman of the 10th Congressional District Republican Committee, concedes his party did not do a great job in reaching out to Loudoun's newest citizens.

Between the 2000 and 2010 Census, Loudoun County's white population dropped from 83% to 69%. The county is now almost 15% Asian (a huge number are from the Indian subcontinent) and 13% Hispanic.

The rapidly changing demographics played a big role in Obama's victory here, as they did nationally.

"It all starts with the recognition that the cultural framework of Loudoun County includes them," Whitbeck says. "Our children go to the same schools yours do. You are just as able to be a part of the Republican Party as the white middle-class guy."

But that message has so far fallen short with many South Asians like accountant Hari Sharma. who sees the GOP as making token efforts to gain his vote. He'll watch the inauguration Monday with hope in his heart that this president will make America feel more like home to those who are fairly new here.

"Obama's policies are more supportive of immigrants," he says.

As someone who looks at income tax returns for a living, he thinks Obama is on the right track by increasing taxes for the wealthy. Sharma says Obama has done a good job in turning the economy around and thanks the president for his 401(k) rising back up after it was halved. He applauds Obama for starting the new year with an effort to curb gun violence.

"We come from a peace-loving culture," he says.

Sharma, 49, met his wife, Sarita, 39, after both left their native Nepal and enrolled in university in Virginia. They settled in Loudoun County in 2004, part of the explosive wave of immigrants looking for opportunities that are scarce back home. They worked for AOL for a while. Sharma now runs his own accounting business.

Their daughter Simron sits in her father's home office studying for two exams the next day. Math and journalism.

Sarita Sharma yells from the living room. "I want an A in both."

That's the South Asian ethic. Study hard or you won't be prosperous in life. Education guarantees are important for the Sharmas. They want Obama to set policies that will increase accessibility to college, make it more affordable, especially for foreign students.

They see Obama as a president who extends a hand to people of color. That's important to Sharma when South Asians are underrepresented institutionally. "We want our voices heard," he says.

Obama's reach to minorities is a big reason Barbara Mitchell says he is the right man to lead America at this juncture in the nation's history.

Mitchell, 53, was born to Panamanian parents but was adopted and raised by a white couple in Maryland. She had taken, as she calls it, a perilous journey of the heart to find her family.

On this dreary January day, her niece is visiting Ashburn from Panama City and Mitchell is trying out her brand new countertop grill to make blueberry pancakes.

She says she read that Virginia was one of the top 10 states for Latino voter impact. Last year, she worked hard to bring more Latinos in Ashburn and Loudoun County, many of whom hail from El Salvador and Mexico and are less educated than their Asian counterparts, into the political fold.

She set up shop in front of an international grocery. She registered only two people that day but handed out 40 flyers describing the path to citizenship and got an earful about how devastating deportations were.

It was an epiphany of sorts.

"Immigration. Immigration. Immigration reform," she says. That's what she wants to tell Obama before he takes the oath.

Stop the deportations that separate families and then help Latinos in this country get a better education, she says. Some 41% of Hispanics who are 20 or older do not have a regular high school diploma, according to the Pew Research Hispanic Center.

"Education matters so much in terms of breaking into the middle class," she says. "I just feel it's going to be really tough for young, impoverished Latinos."

A strong nation

Corporate executive Ralph Buona ran for a county supervisor post last year because he believed the area needed people like him with strong business backgrounds to deal with whirlwind growth. In 2000, there were just 30 schools in Loudoun County; now there are 82.

Buona, 57, is less interested in the social issues that make people think vivid red and blue.

"People's concerns in Ashburn are fiscal," he says. "I'd tell Obama to stop dictating and start being a leader. I'd say you're only half of the deal. You're great at increasing revenues but you have to start looking at costs."

It's a position that architect Bob Klancher agrees with. "It's the national debt that's crushing us," he says. "I don't understand what a lot of folks saw in the president that made them want to rehire him."

Klancher, 54, was raised in Cleveland by parents of Slovenian heritage who worshiped Jesus, FDR and JFK. He was the first one in his family to earn a college degree.

In his first presidential election in 1976, he just couldn't vote for Jimmy Carter. Carter's policies didn't make sense to him. He has voted Republican ever since.

But polarization of the nation, he believes, began in the 2000 election after the Supreme Court had to step in to help decide the Florida results.

"Both parties have drummed out the moderates. People take absolutist stances whether it's the Republicans with their no-tax pledge or the Democrats on spending. I am frustrated."

He wants Obama to bring back the optimism Americans once had that their children's lives will be better than theirs.

Younger Ashburn residents like Caleb Weitz understand Klancher's concerns. He's 25 but already stashes about 10% of his salary working at the Board of Supervisors office in his retirement account.

"As a young person, I'm not expecting to get Social Security," he says. "There's also a concern in my generation about how much debt is being handed down."

But Weitz has one other major concern.

As a young American, he is proud that his country has been a leader; that it has been able to help other nations, guide them to form democratic societies and adopt the values Americans cherish.

He's come to terms with the notion that he will perhaps retire without the safety nets his parents had, including Social Security. But he wants the country he grows old in to still be the world's superpower.

Friends in Obama

Madeline Lewis, 62, works on employment discrimination cases for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Stephanie Brunotts, 53, is a stay-at-home mom. The two became friends working for the Obama campaign.

They were part of the ground game in Ashburn that pushed Obama over the top. They registered voters, knocked on doors, drove people to the polls. Anything to get their man in for another four years.

At Brunotts' townhouse, Lewis, a diehard Redskins fan -- she has season tickets -- rattles off all the things that will matter to her in Obama's second term. Women's rights. Gun control. Access to education.

"I'm concerned about our inner cities," says Lewis, who grew up in Newark, New Jersey. "I want everyone to be educated, get a job. That way, they are not breaking into my house."

The two talk about the Newtown tragedy. Lewis, who is divorced, bought a handgun for personal protection but she doesn't know why anyone would need to own an assault weapon.

She wants to tell Obama to bring back some manufacturing to America. Everything seems to be made somewhere else now. She wants the president to give incentives for companies to stay here. She almost sounds like her Republican neighbors.

"The clothes they make in China are garbage," she says, picking her ginger ale off Brunotts' coffee table, which prominently displays the Time magazine cover of Obama's win in 2008.

Brunotts says Obama did all he could in his first term with his hands tied. She points to Obamacare. "Who knew people would have this level of health care?"

The two women wonder why the country had become so polarized. "Romney's father was a moderate Republican," Lewis says. "People worked together then."

Maybe Washington has reached rock bottom, Brunotts says.

"Maybe it had to break for it to start fresh, to fix it."

Things get worse before they get better

Back at the Giant supermarket complex, Oberschneider, the psychologist, thinks it will take a while for Ashburn -- and the nation -- to heal.

But sometimes, he says in true form to his profession, things need to get worse before they get better. Like an alcoholic in a terrible car accident. That's how he views the ideological divide.

He says he respects Obama. "He's still my president." And that he, like everyone else in America, needs to be able to believe in him.

"I would love to do a group therapy session with all of them -- the president, Congress," he says.

Then he leans back in his oversized chair, in his darkened office in the middle of Ashburn, Virginia, and says: "I think it would take more than one session."

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/18/opinion/gergen-obama-two/index.html

Obama 2.0: Smarter, tougher -- but wiser?

By David Gergen, CNN Senior Political Analyst

Editor's note: David Gergen is a senior political analyst for CNN and has been an adviser to four presidents. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is a professor of public service and director of the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Follow him on Twitter. Watch CNN's comprehensive coverage of President Barack Obama's second inauguration this weekend on CNN TV and follow online atCNN.com or via CNN's apps for iPhone, iPad and Android.

(CNN) -- On the eve of his second inaugural, President Obamaappears smarter, tougher and bolder than ever before. But whether he is also wiser remains a key question for his new term.

It is clear that he is consciously changing his leadership style heading into the next four years. Weeks before the November elections, his top advisers were signaling that he intended to be a different kind of president in his second term.

"Just watch," they said to me, in effect, "he will win re-election decisively and then he will throw down the gauntlet to the Republicans, insisting they raise taxes on the wealthy. Right on the edge of the fiscal cliff, he thinks Republicans will cave."

What's your Plan B, I asked. "We don't need a Plan B," they answered. "After the president hangs tough -- no more Mr. Nice Guy -- the other side will buckle." Sure enough, Republicans caved on taxes. Encouraged, Obama has since made clear he won't compromise with Republicans on the debt ceiling, either.

Obama 2.0 stepped up this past week on yet another issue: gun control. No president in two decades has been as forceful or sweeping in challenging the nation's gun culture. Once again, he portrayed the right as the enemy of progress and showed no interest in negotiating a package up front.

In his coming State of the Union address, and perhaps in his inaugural, the president will begin a hard push for a comprehensive reform of our tattered immigration system. Leading GOP leaders on the issue -- Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, for example -- would prefer a piecemeal approach that is bipartisan. Obama wants to go for broke in a single package, and on a central issue -- providing a clear path to citizenship for undocumented residents -- he is uncompromising.

After losing out on getting Susan Rice as his next secretary of state, Obama has also shown a tougher side on personnel appointments. Rice went down after Democratic as well as Republican senators indicated a preference for Sen. John Kerry. But when Republicans also tried to kill the nomination of Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense, Obama was unyielding -- an "in-your-face appointment," Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-South Carolina, called it, echoing sentiments held by some of his colleagues.

Republicans would have preferred someone other than Jack Lew at Treasury, but Obama brushed them off. Hagel and Lew -- both substantial men -- will be confirmed, absent an unexpected bombshell, and Obama will rack up two more victories over Republicans.

Strikingly, Obama has also been deft in the ways he has drawn upon Vice President Joe Biden. During much of the campaign, Biden appeared to be kept under wraps. But in the transition, he has been invaluable to Obama in negotiating a deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on the fiscal cliff and in pulling together the gun package. Biden was also at his most eloquent at the ceremony announcing the gun measures.

All of this has added up for Obama to one of the most effective transitions in modern times. And it is paying rich dividends: A CNN poll this past week pegged his approval rating at 55%, far above the doldrums he was in for much of the past two years. Many of his long-time supporters are rallying behind him. As the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to score back-to-back election victories with more than 50% of the vote, Obama is in the strongest position since early in his first year.

Smarter, tougher, bolder -- his new style is paying off politically. But in the long run, will it also pay off in better governance? Perhaps -- and for the country's sake, let's hope so. Yet, there are ample reasons to wonder, and worry.

Ultimately, to resolve major issues like deficits, immigration, guns and energy, the president and Congress need to find ways to work together much better than they did in the first term. Over the past two years, Republicans were clearly more recalcitrant than Democrats, practically declaring war on Obama, and the White House has been right to adopt a tougher approach after the elections.

But a growing number of Republicans concluded after they had their heads handed to them in November that they had to move away from extremism toward a more center-right position, more open to working out compromises with Obama. It's not that they suddenly wanted Obama to succeed; they didn't want their party to fail.

House Speaker John Boehner led the way, offering the day after the election to raise taxes on the wealthy and giving up two decades of GOP orthodoxy. In a similar spirit, Rubio has been developing a mainstream plan on immigration, moving away from a ruinous GOP stance.

One senses that the hope, small as it was, to take a brief timeout on hyperpartisanship in order to tackle the big issues is now slipping away.

While a majority of Americans now approve of Obama's job performance, conservatives increasingly believe that in his new toughness, he is going overboard, trying to run over them. They don't see a president who wants to roll up his sleeves and negotiate; they see a president who wants to barnstorm the country to beat them up. News that Obama is converting his campaign apparatus into a nonprofit to support his second term will only deepen that sense. And it frustrates them that he is winning: At their retreat, House Republicans learned that their disapproval has risen to 64%.

Conceivably, Obama's tactics could pressure Republicans into capitulation on several fronts. More likely, they will be spoiling for more fights. Chances for a "grand bargain" appear to be hanging by a thread.

Two suspicions are starting to float among those with distaste for the president. The first is that he isn't really all that committed to bringing deficits under control. If he were, he would be pushing a master plan by now. Instead, it is argued, he will tinker with the deficits but cares much more about leaving a progressive legacy -- health care reform, a stronger safety net, green energy, and the like.

Second, the suspicion is taking hold that he is approaching the second term with a clear eye on elections ahead. What if he can drive Republicans out of control of the House in 2014? Then he could get his real agenda done. What if he could set the stage for another Democrat to win the presidency in 2016? Then he could leave behind a majority coalition that could run the country for years, just as FDR did. Democrats, of course, think the real point is that Obama is finally showing the toughness that is needed.

We are surely seeing a new Obama emerge on the eve of his second term. Where he will now lead the country is the central question that his inaugural address and the weeks ahead will begin to answer.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/18/politics/obama-second-inauguration/index.html

Second inaugural address puts Obama in select company

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama will join what is perhaps America's most exclusive club, peppered with names such as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt, when he delivers his second inaugural address on Monday.

Sixteen of his 43 predecessors, including five of the nation's first seven presidents, gave more than one inauguration speech, topped by the unprecedented four by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

While inaugurations celebrate American democracy through the peaceful transition or extension of power at a ceremony full of pageantry and color, a second inaugural address tends to feel like many second weddings -- important, for sure, but lacking some of the nervous anticipation of the first one.

That could be especially true for Obama, whose historic ascendancy to the White House four years ago as the nation's first African-American president defined a new political era.

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord," he told a frigid crowd estimated at a record 1.8 million people that stretched the length of the National Mall on January 20, 2009.

Much of Washington rejoiced that day and night, with 10 official inaugural balls and scores of unofficial ones epitomizing the grandeur of the moment.

Now Obama is a weathered incumbent. His hair is graying at age 51 from a first term of tribulations, including an inherited recession, the end of one war and the winding down of another, and constant political brinksmanship with Congress over budgets and spending.

His declaration at his first inauguration of an end to "the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics" proved unfounded.

GOP opponents threaten default and government shutdown over upcoming debt ceiling and funding deadlines. Obama also faces a political showdown over his gun control proposals -- one of Washington's most intractable issues -- in the wake of last month's school massacre that killed 20 first-graders in Newtown, Connecticut.

Whether he will explicitly cite such challenges in his second inaugural address was unclear. Asked about Obama's preparations, White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday would only offer that the president was "very appreciative of the fact that the American people have given him this opportunity to deliver a second inaugural address."

"He takes very seriously speeches of this kind, and he's very engaged in the process," Carney added, noting that Obama wrote initial drafts of speeches in longhand on yellow pads. "I've seen some yellow pads of late with writing."

History provides little guidance on what to expect Monday. While themes of unifying the country and seeking God's blessings are common to most inaugural addresses, second efforts have come in varied lengths and styles.

Ulysses S. Grant concluded his second inaugural address with a claim of vindication. He noted that his role as Union military leader and president subjected him to "abuse and slander scarcely ever equaled in political history, which today I feel that I can afford to disregard in view of your verdict" of re-election.

Some two-term presidents focused their second speeches on particular challenges at hand, such as Abraham Lincoln's highly regarded address in the final days of the Civil War in 1865, shortly before his assassination.

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, 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," Lincoln said to conclude the speech of 697 words, a fraction of the 3,610 in his first inaugural address.

He had acknowledged that difference to begin his remarks, saying: "At this second appearing to take the oath of the presidential office there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first."

In a passage that would seem to fit Obama also, Lincoln noted that "at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented."

Three score and 12 years earlier, George Washington set the standard for a shortened second inaugural speech. He limited it to 135 words, compared with the 1,428 he spoke when he became the nation's first president.

Roosevelt's fourth and final inaugural address, in 1945, also was his shortest, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told CNN.

"It was a five-minute speech, and he needed to fortify himself with whiskey in order to get through the pain that he was feeling" from the heart failure that would kill him months later, she said, noting Roosevelt also canceled the traditional inaugural parade that year.

"In the middle of a war, why are we going to have a parade, who's going to parade?" she said Roosevelt had asked. "Normally you have military people parading, and they were in the war itself."

More recently, the trend has been to talk longer the second time around, as demonstrated by both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

While only Obama knows if he will scale back his speech from the 2,395 words of four years ago, other inaugural staples are being reduced this time.

There will be two official inaugural balls, eight fewer than in 2009. Because January 20 -- Inauguration Day -- falls on a Sunday this year, the official swearing-in will occur at the White House, attended by the president's family.

Monday will be the public ceremony, with Obama to be sworn in again by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at the U.S. Capitol, followed by the president's speech and then the parade up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

A crowd of 800,000, smaller than last time, is expected.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/18/why-sunday-obamas-dual-inauguration-ceremonies-honor-tradition-and-law/

3 days ago

Why Sunday? Obama's dual inauguration ceremonies honor tradition and law

Posted by

CNN's Dan Merica

Washington (CNN) – President Barack Obama joins a rare collection of presidents on Monday. No, not the fraternity of 21 second-term presidents, but the even more exclusive group of seven presidents whose inaugurations have fallen on a Sunday.

By holding a private ceremony–before live television cameras but without a public audience–just before noon on Sunday and a full ceremony on Monday, Obama is following with both the tradition established by his predecessors and the legal obligations the Constitution outlines for inaugurating U.S. leaders.

Ronald Reagan was the last to do the same, for his second inauguration in 1985. January 20th that year fell on a Sunday as well and Reagan was sworn-in for a second term privately in the North Entrance Hall of the White House. The public ceremony was to be held on the West Front of the Capitol on Monday but freezing weather forced most of the outdoor events to be cancelled and Reagan's inaugural address was moved inside to the Capitol Rotunda.

The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1933, laid out the rules of inaugurating a president, including the fact that "the terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January" and "the terms of their successors shall then begin."

Before President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1937 inauguration–the first one held in January–most presidents were inaugurated on March 4, the date set by an act of Continental Congress in 1788 and an act of Congress on March 1, 1792, according to The United States Capitol Historical Society.

Realizing that four months was quite a long time to hand over power between administrations, the Twentieth Amendment looked to speed up that transition period. By mandating the actual day on which the president must be inaugurated, the chance of that day falling on a Sunday became real. So after 1933, the inauguration couldn't be moved just a day later.

That is the constitutional reasoning for why Obama will technically be sworn in on Sunday, January 20, in the Blue Room of the White House.

The reason for Monday's pomp and circumstance? Tradition.

President James Monroe's second inaugural in 1821 fell on a Sunday, the first time that had happened for the young nation. After consulting with the Supreme Court on whether he could be inaugurated on Sunday, Monroe decided to hold the ceremony on Monday because "courts and other public institutions were not open on Sunday," according a release from the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

At the time, there was no constitutional guideline on when a president has to be inaugurated, so moving the swearing in a day was not violating America's founding document.

Presidents Zachary Taylor, in 1849, followed Monroe's lead and held the ceremony exclusively on Monday.

Rutherford B. Hayes broke from tradition by taking the oath of office privately on Saturday, March 3 in the White House Red Room and then again publically on March 5, 1877. With Hayes' Saturday wearing-in, he became the first president to take the oath of office in the White House.

President Woodrow Wilson also broke from tradition when, in 1917, he took the private oath on Sunday and had a public ceremony and speech on Monday. This was before the Twentieth Amendment, however, so Wilson had the option to hold all events, like his predecessors, on Monday.

After Wilson, two former presidents – Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1957 and Reagan in 1985 – followed his lead and held a private swearing in on Sunday and public events on Monday.

On Monday, Obama will become the third.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/16/living/michelle-obama-style-inauguration/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

The first lady's evolving style

(CNN) -- It's tempting to dismiss Michelle Obama's wardrobe as a topic so frivolous that it shifts the public gaze from its rightful focus on the first lady's efforts to reduce childhood obesity or put healthy eating on the national agenda.

But if there's one thing we can learn from her panache for mixing patterns or flair for pairing Talbot dresses and designer shades, it's that fashion doesn't have to be frivolous.

"She's someone who has proven that you can care about looking great, and take risks in that regard, and also be an incredibly well-spoken, intelligent person who takes action and gets behind issues," said Leah Chernikoff, managing editor of style blogFashionista.com.

As she stands on the brink of another four years as first lady, her leadership and values should get more attention than the ease with which she transitions from slacks and cardigans to cutting-edge designer gowns. But to minimize the influence of her sartorial choices deprives the rest of us of an opportunity to learn from them, fashion consultants say.

In an image-conscious society, Michelle Obama embodies the importance of honing a signature style and remaining true to it, said Mikki Taylor, editor-at-large of Essence Magazine and author of "Commander-in-Chic: Every Woman's Guide to Managing Her Style Like a First Lady." Developing a personal style that fits our lives and our bodies frees us from worrying about what to wear and lets us focus on what really matters.

"She teaches us that to be a commander-in-chic of your life you don't have to spend a lot of money. It's not about becoming someone else; it's about becoming your best self."

As a style icon, she has the ability to inspire the public in an accessible way that one-wear red carpet fashion doesn't come close to approximating.

"When you look at red carpet you're stargazing, but when you're looking at Mrs. Obama you're taking notes," Taylor said. "We don't have time to stress getting dressed any more than the first lady does so I think it's really important to have wardrobe that you can count on that works for you."

Her outfits emphasize fashion and function, reflecting her broader platform of healthy and active living, said decorative arts historian Carmela Spinelli, chair of the Savannah College of Art and Design's fashion department. When she bares her arms for a gym class with schoolchildren, she makes headlines on the politics page and the style section, inspiring Americans to hit the floor for push-ups and reconsider sheaths under cardigans.

"It's not just great for the fashion industry, but also great for helping us get out and move by showing that the body is just as important as the moment in fashion," Spinelli said.

Her support for emerging designers of diverse backgrounds and influences has bolstered the fashion industry's bottom line while reflecting the country's diverse cultural landscape, Spinelli said.

"When I think about Michelle Obama and how she has embraced young designers and how she is very comfortable with color and texture, it's a brilliant metaphor for the diversity of 21st century America," she said.

What Michelle Obama wears also matters because it's history, said Nicole Phelps, executive editor of Style.com.

"Fifty years from now, or 100 years from now, people will understand this era through pictures of her, the same way that Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hats represent the 1960s for us now," she said.

As rarefied as her address at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is, Michelle Obama's basic look is not difficult to obtain, say fashion insiders. They offered some tips to cultivate a signature style not unlike the first lady's.

Develop a personal style that accentuates the positive

Owning your personal style makes shopping easier because you can do so without feeling beholden to trends. Sticking to what flatters you also helps you dress with confidence each morning without feeling the need to seek approval from others.

"Every woman in America knows that FLOTUS has great arms; that's because she knows it and she shows them off in sleeveless dresses," said Phelps of Style.com.

Michelle Obama is tall and statuesque but she's not the typical model size. Yet she looks great in whatever she wears because she has figured out what works for her body and lifestyle and stays true to her personal style, said celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch.

"She takes chances and tries different things, but she always stays true to herself in trying a new designer or a new color," he said.

You can be fabulous and frugal by mixing high and low fashion

Even if you can't afford designer clothes, Obama's fast-fashion skirts, sheaths and dresses accessorized with a belt or cardigan show how you don't have to spend lots of money to look good.

It also goes back to staying true to a style that fits her body and lifestyle, whether she's stepping out of Air Force One in a Target dress or making a grand entrance in a floor-length gown at a White House state dinner.

"She looks equally well-dressed whether she's in Target or a Talbot sheath or Michael Kors," said Taylor. "I don't know any other first lady you could see on TV one day and buy (what she wore) in a store the next."

Part of what makes Michelle Obama so relatable is that she wears designer clothes but mixes them with pieces from J. Crew and other mall outlets, often in the same outfit, said Chernikoff of Fashionista.com.

"That's an easy takeaway for all of us -- buy the Calvin Klein skirt and wear it with a Gap sweater," she said.

Build a timeless wardrobe of signature pieces so you can shop your closet

The first lady is known for working the same dress, skirt or cardigan on multiple occasions by mixing and matching pieces, Taylor said. She achieves this by building a bankable wardrobe of flared pants, pencil skirts and cardigans that work for her in a pinch, freeing her from the need to follow trends.

"Being comfortable in your own skin is not about following trends but setting them," Taylor said. "A woman who knows how to dress well shows wisdom and restraint and doesn't give into the fashion insecurity of thinking you need a new dress for each season."

True, much of Michelle Obama's wardrobe consists of expensive, quality designer clothing. But spending more on items made to last can cost less over time and reinforce the idea of developing a sense of style and staying true to it, said Spinelli of Savannah College of Art and Design.

"The idea of disposable fashion is costing us more than we know, so it's not a bad thing to teach people to buy something good and keep it for a while instead of throwing it out."

Don't be afraid of color and print as long as you have a deliberate point of view

Obama has embraced mixed patterns, textures and vivid colors, but her confident fashion sense allows her to mix it up with authority.

By wearing watercolor sheaths under embellished cardigans to talk to schoolchildren about healthy eating, or textured floral dresses to meet heads of state, she shows that it's not frivolous to express yourself through fashion while doing the serious work of the first lady of the United States

"She shows us that you can have fun getting dressed up and still be taken seriously and move issues forward," Chernikoff said.