Inauguration Speeches Throughout History

Below is an aggregate of many recent inauguration speeches. If you want to see the actual video of Franklin Roosevelt through W. Bush, go here. Here are the words from every single one and above is the speech from the first inauguration of Obama.

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Of course, constitutionally, the president and vice-president officially as constitutionally mandated took their formal oaths of office yesterday in the Oval Office.
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Henningsen: Second Term Curse

NPR had historian Vic Henningsen on to explain the "Second Term Curse" that has dogged re-elected presidents, good and bad. From George Washington to George W. Bush. Listen above, read below.

"There's an historical axiom, "Today's solution is tomorrow's problem" that President Obama might consider as he begins his final term - as many second terms have resulted in the shipwreck of presidential hopes and dreams.

The so-called "Second Term Curse" began with George Washington. Re-elected unanimously in 1792, he virtually fled from office four years later, denounced as a dictator for crushing the Whiskey Rebellion, for his pro-British foreign policy, and for supporting big business and commerce at the expense of small farmers and laborers. Thomas Jefferson threw the nation into depression during his second term when he imposed an economic embargo to keep the country out of the Napoleonic Wars. Andrew Jackson took re-election as a mandate to restructure American banking and set the country up for one of its worst depressions. Woodrow Wilson's second term collapsed in a failed effort to bring the U.S. into the League of Nations after World War I. Richard Nixon, of course, never finished his second term because of Watergate; Ronald Reagan became enmeshed in the Iran-Contra scandal; Bill Clinton was impeached; and George W. Bush got clobbered when he tried to privatize Social Security after winning another term in ‘04. "
NPR Second Term Curse