Barack Obama

WASHINGTON - The first time Barack Obama ran, the euphoria that attended his election captivated Kamilah Aquil. Then came his presidency, a bracing reality check. Hope faded. Not enough changed. But for Aquil, that doesn't make Obama a disappointment. It does make this second inauguration Monday a landmark she never expected and one she considers even more profound than the first. He's not just the first black president, but a man Americans trusted enough, missteps and all, to give another shot at shepherding our country.

Four years ago, on a bright, cold Jan. 20, Barack Obama took his first oath of office as president and proclaimed a new post-partisan era. "The stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply," the Obama of 2009 said. The second four years of a two-term president's tenure are always different from the first, but it's hard to overstate how different Obama's second term feels, even before his inauguration. He has most of the same goals and many of the same aides, but in strategy and style, the change is dramatic.

WASHINGTON - It's said that a first inauguration is like a wedding, a giddy celebration fueled by fresh possibility, infatuation and promise. The second is an anniversary, marked with nostalgia, clear-eyed expectations, maybe even a shrug. The truism certainly holds for the Bridezilla-worthy bash that was Barack Obama's first inauguration four years ago (Michelle Obama even wore white) and the quieter, nice-dinner-out vibe of the second version that begins this weekend. All the pomp is still on the inaugural bill - the poet, the speech, the parade, the balls.

Click here to download TV listings for the week of Jan. 13 - 19, 2013 in PDF format This week's TV Movies     CBS This Morning Nancy O'Dell. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS Today Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC Good Morning America (N) 7 a.m. KABC Live With Kelly and Michael Chris Colfer; AnnaSophia Robb. (N) 9 a.m. KABC The View 10 a.m. KABC The Wendy Williams Show Meagan Good. (N) 11 a.m. KTTV The Talk Beth Behrs; Jessica Collins.

Re "Inauguration flip-flop," Editorial, and "Obama hasn't reined in Big Money," Jan. 10 President Obama shouldn't be bashed for backpedaling on his pre-Citizens United stance on campaign and inauguration funding. Obama's reelection campaign faced an enormous challenge from his opponent's ultra-wealthy backers, whom the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision freed from nettlesome public scrutiny. To win reelection, Obama had to counter his well-heeled opposition's newly enhanced monetary firepower.

It is hard to have a reasoned discourse about guns when one side of the discussion seems to be dominated by people ready to hole up in an Idaho survivalist camp to await the arrival of the black U.N. helicopters filled with Kenyan commandos coming to disarm America.  President Obama has given Vice President Joe Biden the task of surveying a wide range of interested parties to formulate a remedy for the horrific gun violence that bedevils American...

In the trench warfare that characterizes politics in the nation's capital these days, Chuck Hagel is like a soldier stuck in no-man's land, getting shot at from both sides. President Obama's choice of Hagel as his nominee to become secretary of Defense does not seem to have pleased very many people. The Republican ex-senator from Nebraska appears to have few vocal fans among his GOP Senate colleagues, and Senate Democrats look as if they will be holding their nose if forced to support the president on his choice.

Seated inside a cavernous auditorium in Charleston, S.C., just days before that state's presidential primary in January, I was feeling downright gleeful. Spread out before me was a vast, gaudy, multi-screen, red-white-and-blue stage set worthy of “American Idol.” A CNN producer was warming up a big crowd of well-dressed Republicans, coaching them about when to cheer, when to laugh and when to shut up as if they were rubes in a “Tonight Show” studio audience. Within moments, the candidates for the Republican nomination would be trooped out, one by one - each introduced as if he were in the starting lineup of the Lakers.

The "fiscal cliff" looms ahead and it is a solid bet that no one will come up with a deal in time to stop the country from careening off the edge. Nearly everyone claims they want to avoid the automatic tax increases and massive budget cuts that will start kicking in on Jan. 1, but few are ready to make the compromises necessary to make that happen. As expected, anti-tax purists in the House Republican Caucus have gotten in the way of Speaker John A. Boehner's attempts to come up with a fix for the fiscal cliff.

The richest Americans might find lumps of coal in their stockings on Christmas morning and, if not that, then they can definitely anticipate big hangovers on New Year's Day. The metaphorical coal lumps and hangovers will be thanks to President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner, who are either going to strike a deal in the next few days to allow taxes to go up for the wealthy or let it happen automatically when the George W. Bush-era tax...