2010 State of the Union address: on Principles & Values

Barack Obama: Hard times test us, like we have been tested in the past

Barack Obama: Dems still have the largest majority in decades

To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills. And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town--a supermajority--then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well. Just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership. We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions. So let's show the American people that we can do it together.

Barack Obama: Change stirs passion & controversy; but don't play it safe

No wonder there's so much cynicism out there. No wonder there's so much disappointment. I campaigned on the promise of change--change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change--or that I can deliver it.

But remember this--I never suggested that change would be easy, or that I could do it alone. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That's just how it is.

Those of us in public office can respond to this reality by playing it safe and avoid telling hard truths and pointing fingers.

Barack Obama: Despite setbacks, Americans don't quit; & I don't quit

The spirit that has sustained this nation for more than two centuries lives on in you, its people. We have finished a difficult year. We have come through a difficult decade. But a new year has come. A new decade stretches before us. We don't quit. I don't quit. Let's seize this moment--to start anew, to carry the dream forward, and to strengthen our union once more.

Bob McDonnell: FactCheck: No, Thomas Jefferson was a Democrat

That's a selective paraphrase of what Jefferson actually said in his first presidential inaugural address. What Jefferson really said in 1801 was: "a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement."

So Jefferson first said a wise government "shall restrain men from injuring one another," something that could today be taken as an endorsement of government regulation. By leaving that part out, McDonnell made Jefferson--founder of what has become the modern Democratic Party--sound a good bit more like an anti-tax, anti-regulation Republican than he was in reality.