♪ oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain. for purple mountains majesties, above the fruited plains. america, america, god shed his grace on thee ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea ♪ from sea to shining sea ♪

♪ from sea to shining sea well, welcome, good evening, i'm chris matthews live from the news room in washington where i've been all day. it's been a day of history, pageantry, celebration marking the second inauguration of barack obama. what began early this morning, the church service. tonight, the president and the first lady will attend two official balls. this afternoon, the president sends crowds like when he and the first lady got out of the

motorcade and walked several blocks waiting to onlookers for many of the hundreds of thousands who descended on the capitol today. also, for us, the high light, of course, was the president's inaugural address. it was powerful and i say lincolnesque. he gave an historic shout out to gay rights. on many fronts, the president said it was a time to act. >> well, we're all covered right >> well, we're all covered right now this hour. with me now are three msnbc

political analysts. i've introduced them to you in order, as you're sitting, so that we'll all understand this. i have to say, each in your own way, given phenomenon that was a real telling moment. >> i loved watching that moment when barack obama turned and looked back as he was walking away after having completed the inauguration. he looked back and said i just warrant to take another moment and said i'm not going to be able to see this again. >> i was out watching the inauguration. to me, the most memorable thing is watching the president and his family in the stand at the viewing parade. their ease, their confidentness, their utter americanness. >> i thought it was the tone of the speech. i thought it was uplifting, in many respects. i thought it sort of lended itself to future opportunities for the president to engage with

future opposition. >> let's talk about that. we the people was the phrase the president referred to repeatedly. let's take a look. >> well, it was a we the people phrase there, continuely. let me read it for you. for me, for we the people, understanding our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. we, the people, still believe that every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity. we, the people, still believe that our obligations as americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity. we, the people, still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war. we declare the most evident of truths are created most equal.

i thought it was lincolnesque for the reason that larry wilson said about the gettysburg address. he wasn't going back to the constitution, which is rather dry, although important, but to the declaration which was truly inspiring as our founding document. i thought the president, even though he used the phrase we the people from the constitution, which really used the founding document has the key to his spirit. >> i think he was connecting the ideas he was talking about to the founding of this country. i think a lot of times he was saying, no, taking care of those who are the least of these. and letting that little girl who's born in poverty know that she'll have a shot in life, just have a shot like everyone else. not a guaranteed outcome, but a shot. >> when lincoln was debatings

baiting about the future of the country, lincoln studied the declaration of independence. lincoln with his thinking about america on the declaration of independence. not yes on the constitution, but more fundamentally on the declaration. it's obviously what the civil war was about. this was lincolnesque in the sense that he was applying -- barack obama was applying the thinking about the unity of the country in the dignity of all men and women to the problems he faced today in saying there's a role for the union, if you will. don't forget, lincoln talked about the union, there's a role for the union, there's a role for all of us, together, to solve the problems that we all face. and that was the lincoln part of it. this came, and there's a big conflicting. we the people believe that enduring security do not require through perpetual war.

who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends. and we must carry these lessons into this time as well. i think he's talking about iran. the one war that you face within the next few moments. >> you may very well be. you have to keep in mind taking those sworn enemies was after we defeated them in war. >> why did he say it tonight? >> i think it's a pivotal point. i think he is going to go back to what he said in the first inaugural and during the first campaign about how it's time for us to put down the sword and figure out how we can help everyone pick up the polish here. and i think that's really what he wants to do with the foreign policy is to move it in a new direction. >> it means he's going back to cairo. the speech he gave in june, 2009, he's going back to cairo. >> let's talk about that. let me talk about this. i think what i'm hearing from

robin right, some real experts in the middle east. we may not be able to, but if we can, and they do proceed on it and once we attack them, we will never be able to talk them out of it. they will go back and do it again and again and again. if we go to war with them, it will be an unending struggle. we have a little time to talk them out of it. and i think that's what he's trying to send, this big message. to say you know what, i don't think cheney wanted peace. i think he wanted a war. but maybe this guy will give us something? that puts us in a position where we can say yes, we're not going to go nuclear. we're not going to do it. that's what they want. they want trade. they want economic opportunity. maybe they want to join the world. >> and the thing is, he's backed up these words by picking chuck hagel, the guy who understands war. >> hagel is somebody who considered people -- >> but hagel is there to deconstruct defense contract

spending. >> he didn't talk clockishly. he didn't talk about israel. he didn't talk about anything that we usually talk about that we've got to defend ourselves. it was more like -- it was peaceful. it was almost pacifist, almost. >> well, i think he's choosing -- this first term, he toggled back and forth between the sentiments of cairo and the reality of what we did in libya, for example. we put boots on the ground there. we supported what was going on there. so sometimes he's shown a willingness to use military force to change the facts on the ground. >> assuming -- >> what he's doing, he's going back to his original commitment with which he began the first term. >> he's speaking about ending wars and the country's national security today. what sounded to me a shot of neoconservative thinking. >> we, the people still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require

perpetual war. but we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the war. we turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends and we must carry those lessons into this time, as well. we will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. we will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully, not because we are naive about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear. america will remain the anchor of strong alliances in every corner of the globe. and weapon will renew those institutions that extend our capacity to manage crisis abroad. for no one has a greater stake in a peaceful world. >> i think that's the most important thing he said today because i think it's about war

and peace. i think he wants peace with iran, somehow. and i think picking hagel and john kerry are part of that today. it will be interesting to look at the traffic tomorrow out of teheran and whether they respond to this or not. the president said it was time now for his generation to keep up the work on behalf of all americans and immigrants. this is very liberal. let's listen. >> authority is not complete until our wives, our mothers and daughters are can earn a living equal to our efforts. our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal, as well. our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.

our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful imgrants who still see america as a land of opportunity. until bright, young stunts and engineers are enlisted in our work force rather than expelled from our country. our journey is not complete until all of our children, from the streets of detroit to the hills of appalachia to the quiet lanes of newtown know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm. that is our generation's task. to make these words, these rights, these values of life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every american.

>> joy, there he is, as if it needs to be sold again and again with these generations, the declaration. life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. the kids grow up in the streets of detroit. you think of the hills of appalachia, just hopelessly and then the quiet lines of newtown, which is a nice place. where you figure this is all working for the people, good schools, harder. >> yeah, and i think this was a reminder that this country is great because we're good, when we're at our best, obviously. and he talked about values that you can say, yes, these are progressive values. he used a phrase from the preamble of the constitution that i always love that people remind us that it is to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and posterity. it's the opposite of neoconservativism. >> you also made a very strong case for climate change action, which i think is going to make it very difficult for democrats to carry west virginia and kentucky. those states are heavy on call. >> point after point after

point, this president obama . you and i as citizens have the power to set this country's course. you and i, as citizens, have the

obligation to shape the debate of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we list in defense of our most ancient value of enduring ideas.

you and i as citizens have the power to set this country's course. you and i, as citizens, have the obligation to shape the debate of our time, not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we list in defense of our most ancient value of enduring ideas. >> welcome back to "hardball," that was one of the memorable lines from the president's speech tonight. well, today, in the speech, the president gave a speech of entitlement to the middle class. he also made a historic reference to gay rights, first-time ever for a president. and he probably drove neocons crazy with the term sworn enemies into the surest of friends. it was a powerful speech. but will it stand the test of time?

a columnist for "the daily beast" and senior editor and staff writer at "the new yorker." tell me about the speech orr all. it's a grade in terms of durability? >> i give it an a. the second inaugurals. and i's a pretty sad prospective, except for lincoln's, of course. i thought this was a great speech. i thought it was much better than his first inaugural. it was forth right in setting out a vision of a kind of government that obama wants. in a way, it was, like, it was kind of a liberal version of reagan's first inaugural where he disparaged government. this was a firm defense of a word he dared to use. of collective action. and bill the way, that one drove them nuts at fox news. >> well, bob, the president referenced this early in his speech, very much like lincoln did.

>> for history tells us that while these truths may be self evident, that they've never been self executing. that while freedom is a gift from god, it must be secured by his people here on earth. the patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few. or the rule of a mob. they gave to us a republic, a government of and by and for the people. in trusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. >> i think i've heard this from liberals and i think it's something very important. we all accept the fact that our

rights are innate, they come with our birth, they aren't given to us by a government. but, oftentimes, it has taken a government to give us those rights in effect, whether it was mississippi in '62 or alabama in '63 or onward. federal troops or u.s. marshals. someone has had to come and say you will give these people their god-given rights. >> yeah, look, the speech had a powerful eloquence. but it also had a narrative thread. and what he did was embed his whole argument in the declaration of independence. and whether you're talking about climate change or rights for gay people, which he, uniquely, could make part of the civil rights movement or economic fairness, it all came back into we the people. i think it's the best inaugural address. i agree, most second inaugurals are terrible. i would accept franklin roosevelt and in some sense, the president was echoing that when he talked about the shrinking few who do very well and the growing many who barely get by. but what is amazing is it was a

bookend. and i think rick's right about this. it was a bookend to the reagan speech in 1980. it made progressive vision for america mainstream. it claimed the mainstream of america for progressive values. i think it's a very significant speech. >> well, rick, respond to that. i think it develops the point. listen to what the president said about the middle class. take a look here, rick. >> we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well when a growing many barely make it. we believe that america's prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. >> well, the president gave a strong defense to entitlement. he rejected the division the term by paul ryan with the

makers and the takers. >> we do not believe that in this country, freedom is reserved for the lucky. or happiness for the few. we recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss or a sudden illness or a home swept away in a terrible storm. the commitments we make to each other through medicare and medicaid and social security, these things do not sap our initiative, they strengthen us. they do not make us a nation of takers, they free us to take the risks that make this country great. >> rick, that was the first time i've ever heard anybody make that fascinating defense of these safety net programs. wherein parents will risk anything. they'll spend all of their money as they make it on tuition bills

for their kids, with the assumption of if worse comes to worse, i can make it on social security. >> yeah, that's right. and this was a -- you might say that this was an ideological speech in the best sense of that word. and the battle of ideas and of visions is one that liberals, progressives, have been absent from for almost a generation and have adopted the conservative rhetoric. and in this speech, obama came out forthrightly and i guess the thing about takers was as close as he came to spiking a football. but, mostly, his language, mostly his language, though firm and clearly progressive, was nonconfrontational. it was -- he was not gloating. but he was forcefully making a case that presidents, that liberal presidents, if i may use that terrible word, liberal --

>> yeah, you should. >> have been a little slow on making. >> yeah, bobby, i think there's a real argument here that this is sort of an anti-iran speech, an anti-paul ryan speech. and rick said, no, it's not every person for themselves. that isn't going to sell. they don't like it in american life today. i think that's what he was selling, i agree with rick. it was strongly philosophical about community values. >> well, i think that's right. i think rick is completely right. you know, in 1960, and, chris, you know this, when nixon ran away from the word conservative, he was a modern republican, maybe he was even a liberal republican, nelson rock feller was a liberal republican. conservatives said we're progressive, we're a third way party. and somehow or other, what the president did today, and it wasn't a call to go back to a

previous time, it was a call to go forward on the basis of these values, the values that we care about one another, that we work for one another, that we stand together and that there has to be fundamental fairness of the society. i think that's why the speech will endure. i think it's an indication of where we're going to go in the next few months. and i have to add one other thing, i know good lines when i hear them. instinctively and innately, i wish i had written them. >> i love your jealousy, thank you, bob schrumm. >> it's not jealousy, it's aberration. >> up next, a look back at the many firsts during president obama's first term. >> and this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up

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back to "hardball," we saw an incredible line up in the course of the president's first term: of course, president obama also made history for being the first african american president. but how about this line-up of other titles, from news week? the first gay president in new york magazine, the first jewish president. from the washington post piece by dana millbank, barack obama. in 2009, a french news agency ran a piece hitled an american president. and then radio host geraldo rivera first dubbed him the first hispanic president. and there are many more first term firsts for president obama, some serious, some not quite so serious at all. >> it doesn't matter whether

you're black or white or hispanic or asian or native american or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in america if you're willing to try. >> i urge you to choose chicago. i urge you to choose america. and if you do, if we walk this path together, then i promise you this, the city of chicago and the united states of america will make the world proud. >> this was really convenient. i can't tell you who i voted for. >> i don't have a cell phone. >> i can get you one. i know a guy. >> they let me have a blackberry, but they disable all of the recording devices in there. >> yeah. >> because there's some secret squirrel stuff going on there.

>> and then to know that reverend al greene was here. [ applause ] ♪ i so in love with you >> well, that little serenade is one we will definitely never forget. up next, it was a historic day as our first african american president takes his second oath of office. we honor dr. martin luther king day, as well. president obama is a reflection of the accomplishments of this civil rights leader. there he is. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics.

we, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths, that all of us are created equal, is the star that guides us still. just as it guided our fore bearers through seneca falls and selma and stonewall, just as it guided all of those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great mall to hear a preacher safe that we cannot walk along. to hear a king proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth. welcome back to "hardball," today, the president made subtle but clear note of the remarkable con influence that put the

second inauguration of our first african american on the same day as the federal holiday marking dr. martin luther king's birthday. joining me now, the msnbc contributor, eugene robinson and author of barack obama, the story. let's start with you, david. and there's your book up there. this was -- i thought more of an argument, less than a melding pot than a mosaic. it was an interesting way in which he talked about the different groups that got him re-elected and the way he paid tribute today. >> he came up late in the civil rights movement and always said that he regretted that. this is what he finally proclaimed with such passion today. you can look at his life and doctor king and the rise of civil rights in a very personal way. the day barack obama was born, four civil rights workers were arrested in louisiana.

on august 4th, the civil rights act was passed by the senate. so there's so much history that was sort of, you could see it in his face today, i think in a more profound way than even is first inaugural. >> well, he comes from an unusual background. he comes from an immigrant mother who left the scene, white mother, middle american mother raised in hawaii and raised again in indonesia. >> so he had to construct an identity where he discovered, constructed, i think, because it was a deliberate process. he wrote about it in dreams for my father, his first book, it's been written about by others. and the identity that he constructed is an african american man. he went into the community in

chicago, he -- you know, into the south side to be that, basically. and that's -- that is, i think, genuinely who he is. >> do you think it's like i know when i go to get a cab, i'm just another african american guy? >> right. it's fascinating in the context of black america because he represents so many trends in black america that sort of desegregation of black america. there are african americans who do spectacularly well. there are african americans who have these foreign connections and heritage by growing numbers, including african heritage, like president obama. >> you know, there's one terrible con flew wens. you know, the hatred on the right, not all of them, but the people that really have a probable with the black president. it comes up with the birther movement and the terrible

comments made by people during the last campaign. dr. martin luther king was also hated. so was muhammad ali hated by certain people. every major black hero has had to suffer from the right. >> jackie robinson, muhammad ali, martin luther king was bugged by the f.b.i. and all kinds of rumors were spread about him and the demonizing of barack obama falls into that power. and one of the things that he did today was place history, in the history of civil rights and the history of progressive movements into the mainstream of america, you know, tracing it back to the declaration of independence. >> it's interesting to go back to what the dating is here. here's myrlie evers, the widow of medgar evers. ole miss, alabama and the

wondrous thing, of course, the wife of the attorney general -- by the way, we just lost james woods -- james hood the other day. he died. and he was one of the two people who were integrated, basically, at gun point with george wallace standing in the door back then. in alabama. >> yeah, i mean, those were incredible times. and you and i have some recollection of those times. >> but not the president. >> no, he doesn't. he doesn. he was, at best, a baby when these things were happening. it's -- but he -- but he knows the history. even if he had to learn it. and imthink he learned to feel it. and learned to -- and learned as much as one can learn with the experience. >> go ahead, david, i'm sorry. your thought. >> when he was in college as a young man, he went to the library and brought back the record of the i have a dream speech. he and a couple of his buddies memorized it.

but he intensely studied it during that period. >> here's myrlie evers, the husband of the civil rights activist who was murdered 50 years ago. she gave the invocation today. let's listen to her. >> 150 years after the emancipation proclamation and 50 years after the march on washington, we celebrate the spirit of our ancestors, which has allowed us to move from a nation of unborn hopes and a history of disinenfranchised votes to today's expression of a more perfect union. >> you know, david, i was watching, as gene watched for about an hour or two today, just watching the debonair first family sort of enjoying the absolute freedom of having won a second term, enjoying the moment, the president when he

looked back over from the west front out toward the mall just to get one good, you know, sucking in of that incredible reality. is this going to be a notch up in america? or is this something that's temporal? is this going to change us as a society having this man as our president a second time? >> i think it will change society and change it forever. but it won't change some segments of society. and the fight will continue very difficultly. but you're right, i saw an assuredness in him today, a sense of accomplishment and potential that i've not seen before. the image that struck me most actually was when the brooklyn tabernacle choir was single the battle him of the republic and the camera is focused on the shot of barack obama and i thought it meant a lot. >> what's fascinated me about today is that right now, we're taking note of issues of race and putting them in perspective. but that's not what the day was about.

it was about policy. it was about the way the president explained his agenda. it was about his accomplishments and his plans and his values and his ideas and i think that's an amazing thing in this country that, number one, that a black man is president of the united states. number two, that he got elected twice. it wasn't just a cosmic intent. it happened twice. and, number three, that on the day of his inauguration, most of what we're having is a very normal sort of conversation about his merits and his prospects as president. i think that's an amazing thing. >> and once more, i'm roman catholic in a much smaller way, of course. when bill mellow was the republican nominee for vice president and nobody noticed he was roman catholic. and four years before that, that's all people talked about, was kennedy. anyway, thank you gene robinson for being with us today.

up next, what i'd like to see president obama accomplish during his second term in office. it's very particular. it has to do with peace and war. and this is "hardball," a place for politics. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. welcome back to "hardball." today, president obama became just one of 17 u.s. presidents who have taken a second oath of office.

it gives him a remarkable opportunity to put an indelible stamp on this country. but he also faces an inplaqueble republican party. joining me, washington bureau chief for mother jones, david corn. both are msnbc analysts. so, in this seconds term, i begin to think what i like is something like action on a lot of fronts. what are your views? i'd like to see this country rebuild the way eisenhower did it in the highway system. i'd like to see building go on, not just maintenance. your thoughts, david, on what he should do? >> i think he has a very big and bold agenda. i think he talked about building highways today. he talked about reviving education for grade school and for university. he talked about climate change. now, he's talked about all of these things before. so none of this comes as a surprise. but he also talked about the need to organize.

that citizens involved, and it's not a coincidence that he's making those points to progressives and others today, just a couple days after he has transformed his political presidential campaign into an organizing outfit now called organizing for action. so i think he is aiming for those far away fences for things you would like to see him do, chris, but it's going to happen. not just if he wants to do it, but if he can mobilize enough political support to try to get over some of that republican obstructionism. >> joan, the same question. did you see the beef today? terms of substantive accomplishments worthy of a second term? >> i did, chris. it was a soaring speech. it was an inspiring speech. but it was also as david said practical nuts and bolts, talking about the highway system, talking about we don't want people standing in line for hours to vote. talking about we're not going to make a false choice between

investing in our children and investing in our seniors. i know they're talking. i'm very excited that they're talk about how to expand prekindergarten programs to more kids. in our country, we have this horrible situation where the rich get richer in every way. so affluent kids, upper middle class kids absolutely go to preschool and pre-k programs. poor kids often don't there is head start, but there is not enough. david is right. we don't know how it's going to happen with the house republicans. however, i think i'd like to see him, and we have seen him in the last month put the energy and creativity and passion into projecting his ideas that he did put in the first couple of years into trying to compromise with people who were not having it. i'm very optimistic. >> i think we're part of making the case, not just part of people in the administration, or whatever. but people who believe in progressive action. david, how do we make the case in the time of a $16 trillion debt, and i know we have to get around this, that we could have a capital budget. we could raise money and spend it in a way that would increase the wealth of this country

because of infrastructure and allowing us to have the transportation that is equal to that in europe today, western europe and in asia. can we make that case, or are we stuck with this big debt, therefore all we talk about is retrenchment? >> well, you have to make the case that in this hyper competitive global economy that we now live in, we can't afford to let hurry infrastructure either go to waste or not keep up with what is happening in other countries. he made that argument today, the president, in terms of sustainable energy. i know it makes sense to some people that we have to hunker down and not spend money on anything. but that's really being sort of penny-wise but pound foolish. i mean, actually right now interest rates are so low, that you're a fool if you don't do some investments in terms of education innovation to keep up with other nations. and the president just has to keep making that argument at the same time, chris, i think he does have to sort of deal with some of these long-term deficit debt issues, and just take them off the gosh darn table. >> i agree. >> because they do take up so much oxygen.

and i would rather have him handle that than the next republican president who might come along some day. >> well said. gentlemen, let's get to the electoral problem. we all talked about it, we diagnosed it. something like three dozen states tried republican efforts at the capital to try to screw minorities out of voting. let's be honest what they're up to. that was the name of the game as explained by that pennsylvania legislator, the republican leader, was to get mitt romney elected. >> get romney elected. it's very simple. >> can you at the federal level, as the president's proposed today fix electoral law? can you do it at the federal level, or does the constitution preempt the federal government from getting into state election law? >> well, right. the states do have a fair amount of latitude in the way that they organize their elections. but we do have a civil rights division. i think that eric holder, or whether or not he stays, i think there will be more justice department oversight of what the states are doing, and i think

there should be. i was very happy to see the president say we're not going to tolerate that. and i think it may be a place where it's mostly bully pulpit, but there is a role for the attorney general and for the justice department as well. they have to be overseeing exactly what these states are doing and what the impact, because we know why they're doing it. >> can they do it, david -- >> should make the case it's a civil rights denial when you have to weight eight hours. >> it is. >> this is a great case for organizing for action, the new group. they're going to be organize nighed along state lines as well as national lines. and in some state they can be mobilized against some of the yahoos trying to change the laws as a way of working on bigger issues. >> i like the way you talk. >> for 2016. let's have it for the yahoos tonight, david corn, thank you so much. it's a joyous day. >> it is. >> thank you, joan walsh. thank you for coming on from the golden gate bridge. when we return, what we heard from the president on this historic day. you're watching "hardball," the place for politics. new prilosec otc wildberry

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let me finish tonight with this. he paid tribute to president today to the brave men and women in uniform. our citizens seared by the memory of those we have lost know too well the price that is paid for liberty. but we are also heirs to those who won the peace and not just the worn, who turned sworn enemies into the surest of friends. we must carry those lesson