Essayist Terrence Heath has a three-part look at Obama's Inaugural speech. The first part reviews the GOP reaction to the speech. And that is they were quite miffed that Obama didn't extend an olive branch, saying I know we'll have to work together over the next four years. Obama had tried that in his first term. It didn't work. Why do that again? This time the speech was confrontational.
In part 2, Heath reviews a bit of Obama's record. The prez. managed quite a list of accomplishments even with an obstructionist GOP that vowed to make him a one-term president. And in spite of a sluggish economy, Obama put together a diverse coalition -- even 40% of whites voted for him (and a different kind of stat: 80% of Romney voters were white) -- and beat Romney. So in the Inaugural address, Obama spoke to his coalition. The GOP hasn't yet figured out how not to be the party of old straight white guys.
The third part looks at something Heath noticed about Washington (he lives in the suburbs). There are people who matter and people who don't. The GOP was annoyed because Obama addressed the people who matter -- and it wasn't them.
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