President Barack Obama has kicked off his second term in office starting with a major inauguration celebration.
Obama is the first president to be sworn in twice in one weekend since Ronald Reagan (The U.S. Constitution states that the president is to be inaugurated January 20 of the year following his/her election, but because it’s fallen on a Sunday, it will take place again on Monday).
President Obama took the oath of office on a family Bible at a close gathering in the Blue Room of the White House overnight, before being sworn in again at a public ceremony tomorrow.
After the ceremony, which lasted less than a minute, Mr Obama hugged his wife, Michelle, and his two girls Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, before saying to his youngest daughter: “I did it“.
But before it’s back to business, Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle will enjoy tomorrow’s festivities which include performances by Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor as they take the stage at the presidential inauguration.
Mr Obama with his immediate family beside him at the ceremony Photo: AP
Last week on Breaking News Videos from CNN.com, Ben Smith, Buzzfeed editor-in-chief and American Journalist, Roland Martin, joined Erin Burnett to discuss whether an African-American candidate would win in 2016.
I mean I don’t see why it should really matter whether the next U.S. President is black or white for that matter?..
It’s equally true that 43 of 44 presidents have been white men, but some are saying that there are two very strong possible candidates for the job – both so happen to be black – Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, someone who might fill a cabinet post in the second Obama term and has the credentials of a Democratic nominee and there’s Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Both are said to be Obama allies.
Roland S. Martin, an American journalist and CNN Contributor, spoke against the crazy theory that African-Americans would only vote for a black president in the running.
“Well first of all, if you examine the terms of this whole notion of who African-Americans will vote for. In 1992, Virgina Governor Douglas Wildler short-lived run for president. Al Sharpton ran in 2004 along with former Senator Carol Moseley Braun. It’s not like black folks ran behind their campaign,” Martin said.
“Although President Obama obviously was elected in 2008, re-elected in 2012. You simply can’t assume that African-American voters are just gonna jump behind anybody who’s black and who’s running.”
“Also, look at Tom Bradley, first black mayor of Los Angeles, still the first black mayor! David Dinkins, first black mayor of New York, still the first black mayor! Look at Lee Brown, first black mayor of Houston, he is still the first black mayor,” Rolands Martin continued his argument.
Martin gave examples that there were first and no successors to follow them for a variety of reasons. Meaning, just because Obama has successfully won his second term as U.S. president does not necessarily mean that another black president will follow.
It’s not as simple to say that just because someone is black that they would automatically support their “own race” and later be the next president.
At least 28 people, including up to 20 children between the ages of five and 10, have been killed in a mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Primary School in Newtown, a small town in Connecticut.
The gunman, found dead at the scene, was identified by US law officials as 20-year-old Adam Lanza.
Wearing a bullet-proof vest in what appeared to have been a planned situation, Adam Lanza entered the primary school, at around 9.30am on Friday morning (US time), killing his mother, a kindergarten teacher, before turning his weapon on a group of children.
Lanza appeared to have targeted just one part of the school, where his mother worked. As many as 100 shots were heard throughout the school.
This tragedy is the second highest death toll in a US school shooting, after the 2007 campus shootings at Virginia Tech, which left 32 dead.
Despite the tragedies, support for tougher gun ownership laws is mixed, with many Americans opposing restrictions on what they consider to be a constitutional right to keep powerful firearms at home.
** In similar news, 22 children have been stabbed at a primary school in China, none of the victims died.
An emotional President Obama delivered a statement on the Newtown shootings from the White House. Here’s the video:
We often think politicians lead a luxurious lifestyle. That’s not the case in Uruguay. Meet the president who lives on a shabby farm and donates 90% of his monthly salary to charity – Jose Mujica.
The charismatic 77-year-old lives a different lifestyle to many other world leaders. “I may appear to be an eccentric old man… But this is a free choice,” Mr Mujica said in an interview with BBC’s Vladimir Hernandez.
Giving away almost all of his monthly salary, Mujica donates $12,000 (AU) to charity, meaning he is roughly left with $750 (AU) a month.
“I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.
“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says.
After being elected in 2009, Mujica re-evaluated his outlook on life. In the 1960’s and 1970’s he lived a tough life, being shot six times and spending up to 14 years in jail amongst harsh and isolated conditions. He was later freed in 1985 after Uruguay returned to democracy.
Those years in jail, Mujica says, “it helped shape my outlook on life” and that it gave him a chance to appreciate the free things in life without expensive, materialistic possessions.
Not only does Mujica get around with an old tractor on his farm but his prized valuables are his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle and three-legged dog, Manuela.
Under Uruguayan law, Mujica is unable to stand for re-election in 2014, leaving him able to comfortably kick back to his simple life on his precious farm.
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