Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) said he was impressed by President Barack Obama's second inauguration speech. The President touched on a myriad of topics of interest to Casey including energy, the economy, and gun control.
“I thought [it] was focused not only on the inspiration—what brings us together as Americans, our founding documents, the most inspiring words of our history, but also the fact that he focused on today and the future,” Casey said just minutes after the address.
He said he was most impressed by the acknowledgement of short and long-term goals.
“I think the fact that it was both inspiring and instructive or at least focused on the challenges we have—whether it’s on job creation or reducing spending and dealing with our fiscal challenges as well as our terrible difficult national security challenges as well,” Casey said.
What stuck with the Senator, however, was the President’s call to action.
In his address, Obama said, “For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act; we must act knowing that our work will be imperfect.”
Casey responded, “This isn’t one of those situations where you can just say as a citizen that that’s someone else’s job, or that’s solely the province of someone who’s an elected official-- we all have a role to play whether elected or not, we have a role as citizens to come up with solutions and then try to arrive at a consensus.”
