Barack Obama, Bigger Than Jesus?

A new day is upon us, as the World patiently awaits Barack Obama’s inaugural address. In these troubling times, will Obama’s words move mountains? We need to reunite the world, help repair America. I guess we do need ‘hope.’ Will his speech be better than Lincoln or FDR? We he be bigger than Kennedy, or the Beatles or – gasp – Jesus?

President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural address is one of the most anticipated speeches in decades, with many expecting his words to be chiseled into marble some day. Obama has said he has been studying previous inaugural addresses — including President Abraham Lincoln’s and the speeches President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave as he took office amid the Great Depression. – from CNN

Already lauded as an eloquent speaker, Obama told USA TODAY last week that he has looked to the Lincoln and Kennedy inaugural speeches for inspiration. Kennedy memorably demanded, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Lincoln sought to bind the wounds of the Civil War “with malice toward none, with charity for all.” “My job in this speech and in my presidency is just to remind people of the road we’ve traveled and the extraordinary odds that we’ve already overcome,” said Obama, the nation’s first African-American president. “I’m an emblem of that.” – from USAToday

Barack Obama issued a “call to service” to Americans a day after telling hundreds of thousands, gathered for a concert to celebrate his inauguration, that he needs their help to confront the nation’s problems. Obama’s family today joined with the family of Vice President-elect Joe Biden to do community service work in the Washington area. Obama, 47, used his extensive mailing list to help spur Americans to take on more than 11,000 projects throughout the country as a way of marking the annual national holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. – from Bloomberg