First, appeal to activists from Iowa and New Hampshire. Check. Then, environmental activists. Check. He already supports gay marriage. And now Vice President Biden is going for the youth vote, participating in a Google+ “Fireside Hangout” Thursday.

In fairness, it’s in his official capacity as vice president and will be answering questions on gun control.

“National Democrats are taking steps to create a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground, crafting a new initiative to identify and mobilize progressive voters in the rapidly-changing state, strategists familiar with the plans told Politico. The organization, dubbed ‘Battleground Texas,’ plans to engage the state’s rapidly growing Latino population, as well as African-American voters and other Democratic-leaning constituencies that have been underrepresented at the ballot box in recent cycles.” 

According to the U.S. Census, Texas is 44% white, 38% Hispanic, 12% black, 4% Asian, making it a majority-minority state.  

Two polls show Cory Booker handily defeating Sen. Frank Lautenberg in a hypothetical primary match up in 2014.

“Donald Berwick, who formerly ran Medicare for President Obama, formed a fundraising committee on Tuesday, a further indication that he may run for governor in Massachusetts in 2014,” the Boston Globe reports. “ ‘I’m getting more and more serious,’ he said Tuesday night.”

John Moore / Getty Images

Sens. John Kerry and John McCain during the presidential inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Jan. 21, 2013 in Washington.

One day after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted a sometimes fractious hearing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over last September's attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, the panel holds its confirmation hearing Thursday morning on the man President Barack Obama has chosen to succeed her: Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Wednesday’s hearing with Clinton in the witness chair was marked by some anger and recriminations over the attack in Libya that resulted in the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Clinton at times clashed with Republicans over the administration’s version of events in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, at one point forcefully arguing with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., over the precise origins or motives of the attackers.

She intensely asked, "Was it because of a protest or is it because of guys out for a walk one night and they decide they go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make?"

Clinton also sketched the strategic landscape that Kerry will face in his new job if he’s confirmed by the Senate, as is nearly certain.

Clinton told the committee that the United States cannot allow the North African nation of Mali, just south of Algeria, to become a base of operations for al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), warning of the risk of AQIM attacks on the United States itself.

“We are in for a struggle,” she predicted. “But it is a necessary struggle. We cannot permit northern Mali to become a safe haven. People say to me all the time, well, AQIM hasn't attacked the United States. Well, before 9-11, 2001, we hadn't been attacked on our homeland since, I guess, the War of 1812 and Pearl Harbor. So you can't say, well, because they haven't done something they're not going to do it.”

She also sounded the alarm about the proliferation of weapons from caches in Libya that were “liberated” after Moammar Gadhafi was toppled, with U.S. and NATO help, in 2011.

“Libya was awash in weapons” before Gadhafi was overthrown, she said. “Obviously, there were additional weapons introduced. But the vast, vast majority came out of Gadhafi warehouses ... and then went on the black market, were seized by militias, seized by other groups, and have made their way out of Libya into other countries in the region, and have made their way to Syria, we believe.”

She said the Algerian terrorists who held foreigners hostage at a natural gas plant last week, killing 37 of them, were armed with weapons from Libya.

Syria a looming challenge
Clinton also highlighted another looming challenge for Obama and Kerry: the civil war in Syria in which 60,000 people have been killed. Obama has decided to not impose a no-fly zone against the regime of President Bashar Assad, but he now faces growing bipartisan pressure to give more aid to the Syrian opposition.

On Tuesday, a group of three Democratic and two Republican senators just back from a trip to the Middle East urged Obama to send more aid to the Syrian refugees; some urged him to impose a no-fly zone and to provide weapons to anti-Assad fighters.

“We are all in agreement that more needs to be done to assist militarily the opposition within Syria,” said one of those senators, Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. He added that the debate over what the Obama administration ought to be doing in Syria “is going to be reinvigorated” because the fall of Assad, thought to be imminent a year ago, now is in doubt.

“Clearly now, he is using his air force for nothing more than the slaughter and massacre of his own people,” Blumenthal said. “And the United States ought to be finding a way to either disarm or deflect or somehow diminish that power.”

Clinton said Wednesday in her Senate testimony that, “It is a red line for this administration with respect to Syria concerning the use of chemical weapons. Syria, as you probably know, in addition to having the fourth largest army before this revolution has a very significant supply of chemical and biological weapons.”

The Obama administration, she said, is trying “to prevent those from falling into the wrong hands, Jihadist hands, Hezbollah hands .. .”

She added, “This Pandora's box, if you will, of weapons coming out of these countries in the Middle East and North Africa is the source of one of our biggest threats.”

Kerry, a member of the Senate since 1985, is the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee but will be ceding that post to Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.

A Navy veteran of the Vietnam War, Kerry was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and won 59 million votes, but lost to President George W. Bush.

In announcing the nomination, Obama said on Dec. 21, “John’s entire life has prepared him for this role.  As the son of a Foreign Service officer, he has a deep respect for the men and women of the State Department -- the role they play in advancing our interests and values, the risks that they undertake and the sacrifices that they make along with their families.”  

Related: Clinton takes responsibility in Benghazi attack, clashes with Republicans

In an address Tuesday to the Ripon Society, a Republican-leaning group, House Speaker John Boehner charged that it was the Obama administration's goal to "annihilate" the Republican Party and "shove" it "into the dustbin of history."

Said Boehner:

"And given what we heard yesterday about the president's vision for his second term, it's pretty clear to me that he knows he can't do any of that as long as the House is controlled by Republicans. So we're expecting over the next 22 months to be the focus of this administration as they attempt to annihilate the Republican Party. And let me just tell you, I do believe that is their goal - to just shove us into the dustbin of history. I've been in these spots before. I remember November of '06, January of '07 -- we've been through these periods before. And you know, our members get down, our supporters get down." 

The speaker continued:

“But listen, we are Americans and we will figure this out. These next couple of weeks, next couple of months, frankly, the next 20 months, are going to be a very difficult period for us. While we want to stand up and fight for more fiscal responsibility, want to stand up and find a way to move tax reform that will help our economy grow, to do the things we believe in, we’re going to be doing it in an environment that is going to be far more hostile than anything that I think we’ve seen for a long, long time.  We’re going to have to make some big decisions about how we as a party take on this challenge.  Where’s the ground that we fight on? Where’s the ground that we retreat on? Where are the smart fights?  Where are the dumb fights that we have to stay away from?"  

Boehner also said that he had to give former college football coach -- and ESPN commentator -- Lou Holtz a pep talk after both Obama's inauguration and his re-election.

"Last night, I got a three-page text from my good friend Lou Holtz, who must have watched the inaugural and then all that blabber on TV…: 'I'm done, finished, the country's over with -- we're not doing this again!' Now, I had already had this conversation with Lou about nine or ten days after the election.  He came in to speak to our 34 new Members. And before he went over to talk to them, he came over to my office, and he was moaning and groaning.  I said, 'Lou, would you stop it?  We're Americans, we'll figure this out!' And I had to spend 15 minutes giving Lou Holtz a pep talk!  I had to do it again last night!"

“Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did not read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post.”

– Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her testimony Wednesday on the attacks in Benghazi that killed four Americans.

The House of Representatives authorized a suspension of the nation’s debt limit through mid-May, delaying a default on the government’s obligations that would have taken effect in February.

The GOP-controlled House voted 285 to 144 to comfortably pass a three-month extension in the government’s borrowing authority just as Senate Democratic leaders suggested they would take up and pass the legislation as soon as they could.

The vote early Wednesday afternoon by the House would forestall a default on the national debt. The Treasury Department had warned that the government would exhaust its authority to borrow to finance its existing obligations by the middle of February.

The bill, which Republican leaders unveiled last week, would suspend the debt limit through May 18 and require both the House and the Senate to produce and pass a budget resolution in the meanwhile, with a deadline of April 15. If either chamber fails to pass a budget, its pay would be put into escrow – “No Budget, No Pay” goes the newly-minted Republican slogan to describe this strategy.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, and the House GOP leadership speak to reporters after a closed-door meeting on avoiding a potential debt crisis, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013.

"It's time for Congress to get serious about this," Boehner said of the mounting national debt during a speech on the House floor ahead of the vote, "and this is the first step in an effort to bring real fiscal responsibility to Washington."

Republicans settled upon the strategy in the face of criticism from President Barack Obama that another round of brinksmanship over the debt limit would threaten catastrophe for the economy.

“To spare the middle class another knock-down, drag-out fight, we're going to proceed on this legislation and get it out of here as soon as we can,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in a press conference on Wednesday.

The GOP’s new tack has the added benefit of forcing Senate Democrats to produce a formal budget, something the upper chamber has avoided for several years now. Democratic budget chief, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said Wednesday that Senate leaders had intended to produce a budget anyway, and would do so regardless of what the House bill requires.

Budgets are often political documents as much as a governing roadmap; Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s two budgets as Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee proposed a series of spending cuts and major changes to entitlement programs. But Democrats also managed to seize upon the most controversial elements of the Ryan budgets to use it to campaign against Republicans. If Senate Democrats author a budget, Republicans will doubtless seek to turn it against their opponents.

In the meanwhile, Republican leaders in the House have vowed to produce a budget document that would balance the U.S. budget within a decade. Ryan, the erstwhile GOP vice presidential nominee, said at a Wall Street Journal breakfast this morning that he expects this new strategy to yield “a big down payment on the debt crisis.”

Updated at 2:20p.m. ET: In a hearing marked by sometimes sharp and pointed exchanges, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee she took responsibility for not adequately protecting U.S. personnel in the Sept. 11 attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. 

Defending the administration’s immediate handling of the attack, Clinton clashed at times with Republicans over the account the administration gave in the initial days after Sept. 11.

Clinton said the Obama administration did not try to mislead the American people about the cause of the attacks. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said as she sparred with Sen. Ron Johnson, R- Wisc.

She angrily told Johnson that at this stage it did not really matter what the precise origins or motives of the attack were: “What difference at this point does it make?”

She told Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, a Republican, “we did not have a clear picture” of all that was going on in Benghazi although she did acknowledge that senators had “legitimate questions” about the administration’s account.

Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., -- after telling Clinton “we are proud of you” and that all over the world “you are viewed with admiration and respect” -- delivered a blistering criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the events in Libya.

“There are many questions that are unanswered and the answers you’ve given this morning are frankly not satisfactory to me,” McCain told Clinton. He added “the American people and the families of these four brave Americans still haven’t gotten the answers they deserve.”

He asked Clinton whether she was aware of numerous warnings from Stevens and other Americans in Libya that the facility in Benghazi was not capable of resisting a sustained assault. He also said there had been other warning signs such as an attack on the British ambassador to Libya.

He angrily asked Clinton why Defense Department forces were not nearby to defend the Benghazi facility.

Last month a report issued by the Accountability Review Board (ARB) appointed by Clinton, blamed State Department officials for “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” that led to protection for the Benghazi facility that was “grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

In her response to McCain, Clinton said, as she did to other senators on the panel, that some additional information on the causes and circumstances of the attack is in the classified portions of the report issued by the ARB. Senators and Senate staff can read the classified portions of the ARB report, but the public cannot.

And she blamed members of Congress for holding up additional aid to Libya that might make the country more secure and less chaotic. 

Clinton was testifying Wednesday afternoon on Benghazi before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In his questioning of Clinton Wednesday morning, Sen. Rand Paul, R- Ky., told her, “I’m glad that you’re accepting responsibility. I think that ultimately with your leaving, you accept the culpability for the worst tragedy since 9/11, and I really mean that. Had I been president at the time and I found that you did not read the cables from Benghazi, you did not read the cables from Ambassador Stevens, I would have relieved you of your post.”

He added, “It’s a failure of leadership” which cost the Americans in Benghazi their lives. “I think it’s good that you’re accepting responsibility-- because no one else is.”

Paul also argued that U.S. personnel ought to never have been sent to Benghazi “in a war zone” without a military guard. “You shouldn’t send them in with the same kind of embassy staff that you have in Paris,” he added. 

Clinton replied that all four State Department officials criticized in the ARB report for their roles on the Benghazi events had been removed from their jobs and placed on administrative leave. “The ARB (report) made very clear that the level of responsibility for the failures that they outlined was set at the assistant secretary level and below.”

The furor over the Benghazi attack helped derail one possible nominee to replace Clinton at the State Department, UN ambassador Susan Rice, whom Republicans assailed for using administration talking points that portrayed the incident as a spontaneous response to an inflammatory anti-Islamic video.

But Clinton told the committee that in the hours and days after the attack, “I was not focused on talking points” and “I wasn’t involved in the talking points process.”

Recommended: Biden not shying away from 2016 speculation

In her opening statement, Clinton told the committee, “As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility.  Nobody is more committed to getting this right.  I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger, and more secure.”

Clinton's voice choked with emotion as she recalled the return of “those flag-draped caskets” from the Americans killed in Benghazi and put her arms “around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters” of those killed. 

Clinton also used her testimony to deliver a vigorous call for continued U.S. involvement in the North African nation of Mali where the Obama administration is aiding French efforts to defeat Islamic jihadist forces.

She told the committee that the United States cannot allow Mali to become a safe haven for the group Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), warning of the risk of AQIM attacks on the United States itself.

Clinton also said she could not confirm reports that some of the terrorists involved in last week’s Algeria hostage taking were also involved in the Benghazi attack but called it a "new thread" to follow.

She did say that there is no doubt that Algerian terrorists have weapons they obtained from depots in Libya that were opened up and “liberated” after the dictator Moammar Gadhafi was toppled, with U.S. and NATO help, in 2011.

Gary Cameron / Reuters, file

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks about the hostage situation in Algeria during a joint news conference with Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (not pictured) after their meeting at the State Department in Washington Jan. 18, 2013.

Clinton said she had accepted the ARBs recommendations for improvements in security procedures and had asked her subordinates “to ensure that all 29 of them are implemented quickly and completely.” She said these changes are designed to “reduce the chances of another Benghazi happening again.”

On Thursday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold its confirmation hearing for Clinton’s successor, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who is the committee’s chairman and is likely to be confirmed without any opposition.

GOP tries to regroup as RNC begins its winter meeting in Charlotte, NC… Bad news, good news for the GOP… Hillary Clinton testifies -- at last -- on Benghazi… House to vote on extending the debt ceiling… NRA’s LaPierre defends “absolutism”… The center strikes back in Israel… Lautenberg says Booker deserves a “spanking,” though a new Quinnipiac poll shows who’s giving the real spanking so far… And 2016 watch: Rubio speaks at 2:00 pm ET before U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

*** GOP tries to regroup: Two days after President Obama’s inauguration, all the Democratic celebrations, the parades and inaugural balls, Republicans today begin heading to Charlotte, NC for the RNC’s winter meeting, where they will lick their electoral wounds and start to regroup. Here’s the bad news for the GOP: According to the most recent NBC/WSJ poll, the party’s unfavorable rating (49%) is at its highest point since 2008. The Obama White House and Democrats forced the GOP to fold its opposition to raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans (though the agreement extended tax breaks for everyone else). And it has retreated -- for now -- on using the debt ceiling to demand additional spending cuts (and will instead use the budget process for that fiscal fight).

*** Bad news, good news: So that’s the bad news for a party that has lost two-straight presidential contests -- and has lost them decisively. The good news is that politics and circumstances can change. After all, it was just eight years ago when Democrats were coming off their second-straight presidential loss and many were talking about a permanent conservative majority. What’s more, the 2014 midterm season looks potentially bright for the GOP, given the Democratic Senate seats that are up next year and given that the Obama coalition of voters isn’t as likely to participate in elections when the president’s name isn’t at the top of the ticket. And finally, as Obama proved, a charismatic presidential candidate can help turn around a party’s fortunes. The challenge, of course, is finding that candidate, as well as improving the party’s overall brand. So yes, a party’s political fortunes can change. But how it uses its time out of power -- and how it learns from its past losses -- is perhaps the most important component to getting back on the right track.

*** The real action in Charlotte begins tomorrow: That brings us to the upcoming RNC meeting in Charlotte, which happens to be the same city where Democrats held their triumphant convention last year. Per NBC’s Carrie Dann, the real action begins taking place tomorrow, when Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks at a dinner and when the RNC’s “Growth and Opportunity Project” -- the party’s effort to improve upon what went wrong in the last election -- will discuss its research. And on Friday, the 168 RNC members will elect the party chairman for the next years. It’s widely expected that current RNC Chair Reince Priebus will win re-election.

*** Hillary Clinton testifies on Benghazi: As the RNC begins to huddle in Charlotte, Capitol Hill today braces itself for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s long-awaited congressional testimony on the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Clinton’s testimony -- at 9:00 am ET before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and 2:00 pm ET before the House Foreign Affairs Committee -- comes after an independent study criticized Clinton’s State Department “for a lack of seasoned security personnel and for relying on untested local militias to safeguard the compound,” the New York Times reported at the time. After that report, four top State Department were removed from their posts. While the hearings could get testy, Clinton comes into them in a strong political shape. According to the last NBC/WSJ poll, her approval rating stands at 69%, which is higher than any other outgoing secretary of state measured in a poll since 1948 -- with one exception: Colin Powell in 2004. Also, don’t miss that another 2016 hopeful Marco Rubio will be asking some of the questions today (more on Rubio below).

*** House to vote on extending debt ceiling: Also on Capitol Hill today, the House will vote to raise the debt ceiling for three months. NBC’s Luke Russert reported that House Speaker John Boehner yesterday implored his GOP conference to pass this extension -- under the promise that House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan will be working on a plan to balance the budget over the next 10 years. "Passing a short-term hike buys time for the House and Senate both to pass a budget,” Boehner said, per a source in the room. Technically, today’s vote is to SUSPEND the debt limit rather than RAISE it. As NBC’s Frank Thorp explains, the legislation suspends the debt ceiling until May 18, so during that time the U.S. government would have no debt limit. After May 18, Thorp adds, Congress would then pass a debt-limit extension to retroactively cover the debt that was incurred during the suspension of the limit. The vote is expected to take place around 12:30 pm ET, and it’s supposed the pass. The Obama White House yesterday said it supports this three-month extension/suspension. By the way, in convincing the rank-and-file to go along with this, Politico reports that Boehner made the pitch, but Ryan made the sale.

*** NRA’s LaPierre defends “absolutism”: The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre made the case yesterday that “absolutism” is a good thing. In an address, LaPierre said, “Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word. Just another word for extremism. He wants you, all of you, and Americans throughout all of this country, to accept the idea of principles as he sees fit. It’s a way of redefining words so that common sense is turned upside down and that nobody knows the difference… We believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic firearms technology…  I’ve got news for the president: Absolutes do exist. Words do have specific meaning in language and in law. It’s the basis of all civilization... Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on, well, who to eat for lunch.”

*** The center strikes back in Israel: Yesterday, we wrote that everyone was expecting Tuesday’s Israeli elections to produce a government that was even more conservative than the current government. But that expectation turned out to be wrong. The Washington Post says the elections “weakened Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and raised the prospect of a more centrist government that could ease strained relations with Washington and signal more flexibility in peace efforts with the Palestinians.” More: “With 99 percent of the votes counted, results showed the combined ticket of Likud and the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu faction losing a quarter of its seats in parliament, along with a surprising surge for a new centrist party, Yesh Atid, which looks set to become a key element of a future coalition. The result meant that Netanyahu, whose faction remained the largest in parliament, would almost certainly have to join forces with Yesh Atid, now second in size. The centrist party’s demands include resuming negotiations with the Palestinians, and an alliance could result in a government less tilted to the right than Netanyahu’s outgoing administration.”

*** Lautenberg says Booker deserves a “spanking”: There’s never a dull political moment in New Jersey, that’s for sure. As National Journal writes, “Sen. Frank Lautenberg made his first public comments about Newark Mayor Cory Booker, comparing him to his disobedient children, and suggesting the upstart mayor needed a ‘spanking.’” Lautenberg told the Philly Inquirer: "I have four children, I love each one of them. I can't tell [you] that one of them wasn't occasionally disrespectful, so I gave them a spanking and everything was OK.” But according to a new Quinnipiac poll, New Jersey Democratic voters prefer Booker over Lautenberg by 51%-30%, and a plurality say Lautenberg doesn’t deserve re-election. What’s more, And 71% think his age -- he’s 89 and will be 90 by the 2014 election -- “makes the work too difficult,” versus 21% who say it “gives him the wisdom and experience to do a good job.” The same Quinnipiac poll has Gov. Chris Christie with a whopping 74% job-approval rating.

*** 2016 watch: Rubio speaks to Chamber: Lastly today, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) speaks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at 2:00 pm ET. The speech is on education and middle-class opportunity.

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*** Wednesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts interviews Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) and former  U.S. Amb. Marc Ginsberg on Secy. Hillary Clinton’s testimony on the Benghazi attack.  Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) joins to discuss today’s debt ceiling vote.  And Today’s Power Panel includes: The Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson, Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis and Republican strategist John Brabender.

*** Wednesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include Democratic strategist Karen Finney, Huffington Post’s Sam Stein, Politico’s Maggie Haberman, the New York Times Magazine’s Hugo Lindgren, and former State Department spokesman PJ Crowley.

*** Wednesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Ambassador Nicholas Burns, Eisenhower Institute President Susan Eisenhower, NBC Terror Analyst Michael Leiter, NY Times’ Michael Sanger, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell.

*** Wednesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: The program has live coverage of Hillary Clinton’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Also joining Tamron today: Democratic strategist Mo Elleithee and Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ).

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies on the attacks in Benghazi Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations at 9:00 am ET and the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 2:00 pm ET.

NBC’s Tom Curry: “The political stakes will be high Wednesday morning when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about her role in the events leading up to the September attack on a U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in the killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The stakes will also be high for a Republican member of the committee, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, whom some pundits see as a possible presidential candidate in 2016. It will be a rare instance when one potential White House hopeful gets an opportunity to interrogate a potential rival from the opposing party. Clinton herself is thought to be a strong contender for the Democratic nomination, should she chose to throw her hat into the ring.”

“President Obama's swearing-in Monday to a second term also marked the end of an extraordinary chapter in Hillary Clinton’s life,” the New York Daily News writes. “For 20 years, Clinton has been a fixture in Washington, capturing the nation’s attention as First Lady, a U.S. senator from New York and secretary of state. … But next week, she will reclaim her private life. After logging nearly 1 million miles and visiting 110 countries as the nation’s top diplomat, she will step down from the State Department to relax and recharge. … The big question now is whether her departure from the Obama administration is her farewell to public service — or if she’ll back in four years on the same stage for her own inauguration as Madame President.”

The New York Times’ Zeleny says, “The Constitution may promise President Obama another four years in the White House, but political reality calls for a far shorter time frame: he has perhaps as little as a year to accomplish his big-ticket goals for a second term.”

Also from the New York Times: “The governor of Nebraska on Tuesday approved a revised route through the state for the Keystone XL pipeline, setting up a decision for President Obama that pipeline opponents say will be a crucial test of his intentions on climate change.”

Reuters: “The Obama administration is likely to rely mostly on existing rules and on flexing executive power to execute its second-term environmental agenda, sidestepping Congress as it sets about radically reducing greenhouse gases generated by major polluters. … More details on climate initiatives could come out of the president's State of the Union address on Feb. 12.”

Beth Reinhard: “Even as Democrats relish President Obama’ second inauguration, some party leaders are worried about whether the campaign’s decision to form its own advocacy group will hamstring future generations of Democratic candidates… Some activists foresee a power struggle between the national party, which aims to elect Democrats above all else, and the new group, which aims to build the president's legacy -- and may have to pressure wavering swing-state Democrats to tow the unapologetically liberal agenda laid out in his inauguration speech.”

The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre made the case yesterday that “absolutism” is a good thing.

In an address yesterday, he said: “Obama wants to turn the idea of absolutism into a dirty word. Just another word for extremism. He wants you, all of you, and Americans throughout all of this country, to accept the idea of principles as he sees fit. It’s a way of redefining words so that common sense is turned upside down and that nobody knows the difference. …

“We believe in our right to defend ourselves and our families with semi-automatic firearms technology….  I’ve got news for the president. Absolutes do exist. Words do have specific meaning in language and in law. It’s the basis of all civilization. … Without those absolutes, without those protections, democracy decays into nothing more than two wolves and one lamb voting on, well, who to eat for lunch.”

AP: “Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been elected vice chair of the Democratic National Committee.”

Sacrebleu! Ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy was planning to flee France for England because the taxes are too high and to avoid a corruption probe.

Speaking of fleeing for taxes, golfer Phil Mickelson also says he considered bolting California and even the U.S. because of tax rates. Mickelson has since said he regrets making the comment public. He made $45 million last year and had been considering buying the San Diego Chargers. Mickelson’s take-home pay is estimated at $24 million. Golfers, including Tiger Woods, who’s from California, generally live in either Texas or Florida because there’s no state income tax.

“House Republicans are scheduled to vote Wednesday to extend the nation's $16.4 trillion debt limit as the opening salvo in a renewed battle this year to pass a federal budget and reduce the debt,” USA Today writes. “The GOP bill would suspend the limit on the nation's borrowing authority to pay for the nation's legal obligations through May 18.”

And, mark your calendars: “President Obama and House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will release their respective budgets after the president's Feb. 12 State of the Union Address.” And: “In an effort to pressure the Senate, House Republicans included in their legislation a provision to suspend lawmakers' salaries if their respective chamber does not pass a budget by April 15.”

Politico on the GOP’s “debt-ceiling makeover”: “The warning was unusually dire. Speaker John Boehner laid out what many in Washington already knew as he stood before House Republicans at his party’s retreat last week: The GOP needed a new plan to tackle the debt ceiling. Trying to force President Barack Obama to slash trillions of dollars in spending against the backdrop of default simply wouldn’t work this time around.” Boehner made the pitch and Paul Ryan was the “salesman.”

NBC’s Tom Curry: “With inaugural festivities over, President Barack Obama and members of Congress have returned to budget trench warfare. House Republicans will vote Wednesday on suspending the federal government’s debt limit until May 19 in the latest chapter of this ongoing saga that has consumed Washington for the better part of the last two years. GOP leaders hope that by passing their bill, they will not only postpone another debt limit confrontation with Obama, but will put the onus on the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass a budget resolution which would set spending levels for federal programs for the coming fiscal year. The Senate hasn't passed a budget resolution since 2009.”

“Senate Democrats Tuesday promised quick action on President Obama’s agenda to curb gun violence by placing all of Obama’s proposals in one sweeping bill,” the New York Daily News writes. “Until this week, Democrats had considered moving the gun-control proposals in separate bills. Consolidating the proposals could streamline the process, allowing quick passage of some elements even if more controversial proposals, such as a ban on assault weapons, are stripped out of the package.”

“For years, conservatives have called President Barack Obama a leftist radical hiding behind a moderate facade. If the country had only listened, the argument went, voters never would have elected him in the first place,” Politico writes. “Now they’re saying, we told you so.”

Mitch McConnell, famous for quotes about President Obama: “One thing that was pretty clear from the president’s speech yesterday, the era of liberalism is back.”

NBC’s Michael O’Brien: “Vice President Joe Biden has barely hidden his possible interest in running for president in 2016, and now, the loquacious former senator has begun to lay the groundwork for a potential campaign to succeed President Barack Obama. ‘In a couple years, I think he's going to take a hard look at it,’ Beau Biden, the vice president's son and the attorney general of Delaware, said on MSNBC. ‘I hope he does.’”

AP: “Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton remains the heavy favorite of the Democratic party faithful, but Biden is making clear that he has no intention of closing any doors that could lead to the White House — especially if Clinton decides not to run.”

Politico: “Biden, according to a number of advisers and Democrats who have spoken to him in recent months, wants to run, or at least be well positioned to run, if and when he decides to pull the trigger. Biden has expressed a clear sense of urgency, convinced the Democratic field will be defined quickly — and that it might very well come down to a private chat with Hillary Clinton about who should finish what Barack Obama started. ‘He’s intoxicated by the idea, and it’s impossible not to be intoxicated by the idea,’ said a Democrat close to the White House. “

As national Republicans gather in Charlotte, The Charlotte Observer notes: “For most Republicans, November was grim. They lost the White House and all but one battleground state. They lost seats in Congress. They saw America’s fastest-growing minority groups reject their party. But in North Carolina it was a happier story. … A presentation scheduled for Thursday is called ‘Success in N.C.: A Blueprint for the Future.’ But how much of that blueprint can be replicated is debatable.”

“A Republican-led redistricting plan in Virginia — pushed through the state Senate by a one-vote margin while a Democratic senator was in Washington attending the Inauguration — is drawing outrage from Democrats and criticism from GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell,” Politico notes. “The plan to redraw state Senate districts passed Monday after limited debate on a 20-19 party-line vote. It would create a new majority-minority district in the state but would change almost all existing district lines and force two senators — Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Emmett W. Hanger Jr. — into a single district.”

The Virginian-Pilot: “Senate Democrats still seething Tuesday over Republicans' unilateral redistricting rewrite a day earlier delivered fiery floor speeches, calling out the GOP caucus for practicing raw politics for their own gain ‘under the guise of being good to black folks.’”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: The prospects for bipartisan cooperation on a transportation fix at this year’s General Assembly session appeared dimmer Tuesday as Democrats intensified their criticism over a surprise redistricting maneuver by Senate Republicans that was designed to strengthen their hold on the chamber in future elections.

Said Bob McDonnell: “This is not an issue that I advocated, and I was surprised about the vote yesterday,” McDonnell said Tuesday morning after a breakfast hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business. “I certainly don’t think that’s a good way to do business.”

Americans for a Strong Defense, a Republican-leaning group that opposes former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary, is airing new TV ads hitting Hagel in four states where Democratic senators are up for re-election in 2014.

The four states: Alaska (where Sen. Mark Begich is up for re-election next year), Arkansas (Sen. Mark Pryor), Colorado (Sen. Mark Udall), and Louisiana (Sen. Mary Landrieu).

"Barack Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense wants America to back down," one of these ads goes. "An end to our nuclear program. Devastating defense cuts. A weaker country. Call Mark Begich and tell him to say no to Chuck Hagel –- before it’s too late."

A spokesman for Americans for a Strong Defense says the ad buy is "significant," and the advertisements will air on broadcast and cable in these four states.

Political observers have placed so much emphasis on the “liberal” second inaugural address that President Obama delivered yesterday.

David Remnick in the New Yorker called Obama “a liberal emboldened by political victory.”

Scott Andrews / Pool via AP

President Barack Obama waves to crowd after his Inaugural speech at the ceremonial swearing-in on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013.

The Atlantic’s James Fallows added that the speech was “the most sustainedly ‘progressive’ statement Barack Obama has made in his decade on the national stage.” 

Politico’s Thrush agreed.

So did we. “More than anything else, [the address] was an unabashed defense of liberalism/progressivism,” we wrote in First Thoughts.

And now the GOP-leaning group Crossroad GPS has pounced on similar commentary with a new web video. “At least his rhetoric is now matching his record,” Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio said in an email announcing the video.

But what is being mostly overlooked is how many of the policies and viewpoints Obama articulated in his inaugural address are supported by majorities of Americans.

Take Obama’s advocacy for gay rights, for example. (“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” Obama said in his speech yesterday). As it turns out, per the Dec. 2012 NBC/WSJ poll, a majority of Americans -- 51% -- favor gay marriage. That’s up from a mere 30% in 2004.

There’s also immigration reform. (“Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.”) The Jan. 2013 NBC/WSJ found another majority -- 52% -- supporting giving illegal immigrants the ability to apply for legal status.

And then there's his defense of entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare. (“These things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us. They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.”) Polls overwhelmingly find that Americans support these programs.

One issue that Obama discussed yesterday -- stopping climate change -- is a topic that could be a harder political sell, although the NBC/WSJ poll hasn’t tested it in a long time. And it is possible, as the Washington Post's Dan Balz notes, that Obama's second term could be marked by overreach.

But it's also hard to argue that these “liberal” ideas and policies are somehow far outside the political mainstream.

As Politico writes, “The cultural changes that allowed Obama to be the first president to mention gay rights in an inaugural address are already widely accepted by the public or destined to be so soon as a younger, more socially liberal generation comes of age. The president’s promise to address climate change and his peroration on continuing ‘what those pioneers began’ on gender equality, gay rights, voting rights, immigration and gun control likewise illustrated just how much the White House is convinced that the country’s cultural center has moved.”

NBC's Domenico Montanaro contributed to this article.

An emboldened Obama… The liberal Reagan?... But can Obama get a third term (George H.W. Bush’s) like Reagan did?... Obama’s striking comments (and shift) on gay marriage… His striking comments on climate change… The potential for overreach?... Obama attends national prayer service at 10:30 am ET… NBC/WSJ poll: Majority, for first time, want abortion legal… House to vote tomorrow on raising the debt ceiling… And Israel’s clear-right shift?

*** An emboldened Obama: Since becoming a national political figure eight years ago, Barack Obama has often cast himself as someone trying to transcend petty and dogmatic politics. “There is not a liberal America and a conservative America,” he said at the 2004 Democratic convention. “There is the United States of America.” And at his first inauguration four years ago, President Obama said, “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.” But chastened by the last four years and emboldened by his decisive re-election in November, Obama yesterday discarded that image of post-partisanship and instead called for action -- which was unmistakably on the liberal side. “Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time,” he said in his second inaugural address. More than anything else, it was an unabashed defense of liberalism/progressivism.

Rick Wilking / Reuters

President Barack Obama speaks at the Commander in Chief's Ball during presidential inauguration ceremonies in Washington, Jan. 21, 2013.

*** The liberal Reagan? Indeed, back in 2008, Obama said he viewed a successful presidency as one that changed the trajectory of American politics. "Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and a way that Bill Clinton did not,” he said. And another way to interpret Obama’s inaugural address was as a declaration that politics has been transformed -- on the role of government, on gay rights, and on war. As a result, commentators across the ideological spectrum (Andrew Sullivan, Ross Douthat, Matthew Continetti) compared Obama’s speech yesterday, and his presidency, to a liberal Reagan. But remember this about Reagan: The reason he has able to change the trajectory of American politics is that he essentially received a third term (George H.W. Bush’s), which not only resulted in more Supreme Court nominees and government appointments, but which also broke the opposition party. In other words, it made the opposition rethink its entire ideology. After all, those three GOP terms later resulted in Bill Clinton’s centrist presidency that cemented conservative politics (welfare reform, the Defense of Marriage Act, the era of big government is over). Similarly, it was the Eisenhower and Nixon White Houses that cemented the New Deal and Great Society. So can Obama get a third or fourth term? That’s what 2016 will be about. If Democrats do get that third term, the GOP will be forced to rethink its ideology.

Slideshow: 57th Presidential Inauguration

*** Obama’s striking comments (and shift) on gay rights: Maybe the most striking (and memorable) lines of Obama’s inaugural speech were his remarks on gay rights. “‘All of us are created equal’ is the star that guides us still -- just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” he said. He later added, “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.” It’s important to remember that Obama was someone who opposed gay marriage in presidential run in ’08, and who later said he was evolving on the subject. Obama’s shift is a reflection of how quickly the politics of gay marriage have changed in this country. (The train was leaving the station, and Obama jumped on board.) And so is the fact that there has been little to no backlash to those remarks -- at least so far.

*** And his striking comments on climate change: What also struck us about yesterday’s speech was his call to action on climate change. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.” The line was striking because climate change isn’t viewed as a top-shelf priority for Obama’s second term (compared with gun control, immigration, and the fiscal situation). Yes, Obama did mention the topic at his 2012 Democratic convention address. (“Climate change is not a hoax,” he said. “More droughts and floods and wildfires are not a joke.”) But he didn’t say those two words of “climate change” during his 2012 victory speech. And his administration abandoned the cap-and-trade legislation on energy once it was clear it couldn’t pass the Democratic-controlled Senate. Question: Does this mean we should expect a more serious policy proposal on climate change in Obama’s State of the Union next month?

*** The potential for overreach? Given this emboldened Obama and given these calls for action on gay rights and climate change, the Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes that there’s a potential risk for Obama: overreach. “Obama risks overreaching or over-interpreting his mandate, which can be an affliction of newly reelected presidents. His victory in November was decisive but not overwhelming. Self-confidence can slip over the line to arrogance or hubris. Second terms often disappoint. So there are dangers ahead for the president.” Also, as ambitious as Obama’s vision was yesterday, little else is going to happen until the fiscal/budget impasse is broken.

*** Obama’s day: Today, the inaugural ceremonies conclude with Obama’s participating at a national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral at 10:30 am ET.

*** NBC/WSJ poll: Majority, for first time, want abortion legal: Also today is the 40^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. And pegged to that decision, a new NBC/WSJ poll finds that a majority of American – for the first time -- believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. What’s more, seven in 10 respondents oppose Roe v. Wade being overturned, which is the highest percentage on this question since 1989. “These are profound changes,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart and his colleagues. McInturff adds that the abortion-related events and rhetoric over the past year – which included controversial remarks on abortion and rape by two Republican Senate candidates, as well as a highly charged debate over contraception – helped shaped these changing poll numbers. “The dialogue we have had in the last year has contributed … to inform and shift attitudes.”

*** House to vote tomorrow on raising the debt ceiling: Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will vote on raising the debt ceiling, NBC’s Shawna Thomas confirmed. Per the AP, “House leaders on Monday unveiled legislation to permit the government to continue borrowing money through May 18 in order to stave off a first-ever default on U.S. obligations. It is slated for a vote on Wednesday. The measure marks a change in strategy for House Republicans, who have backed off demands that any extension of the government's borrowing authority be accompanied by stiff spending cuts.” This vote is a retreat by House Republicans, but they’re making the most of their retreat with this infographic.

*** Israel’s clear-right shift? Lastly, while we’re discussing America’s possible shift from a center-right nation to MAYBE a center-left one, Israel’s elections today could cement that country’s shift from the center-right to the clear-right. The New York Times: “Polls in recent weeks have consistently predicted a victory for Mr. Netanyahu’s ticket, a combination of his conservative Likud Party and the ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu. But the polls have also shown the joint ticket declining in strength, from the 42 seats it holds in the current Parliament to perhaps 32 or 35, and losing support to the Jewish Home, a party further to the right that has been revitalized and energized under the leadership of Naftali Bennett, a charismatic first-time candidate.”

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*** Tuesday’s Daily Rundown’s line-up: Delaware Atty. Gen. Beau Biden (D) on the gun fight and the Inauguration… Wilson Center President and former Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) on today’s vote in Israel… More on the new NBC/WSJ poll numbers related to the Roe v. Wade anniversary with Republican pollster Kristen Soltis, EMILY’s List’s Stephanie Schriock and the Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson in the Gaggle.

*** Tuesday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: MSNBC’s Chris Jansing talks to Rep. Allyson Schwartz, Carrie Budoff Brown and Andy Kroll about Obama’s second term, the debt ceiling and the Benghazi investigation; Michael Beschloss gives his thoughts the inauguration; Margie Omero and Myra Miller look at the President’s surprise move to put the environment and climate change under the spotlight; longtime NARAL head Kate Michelman examines the changes in abortion views forty years after Roe v. Wade; and Karen Tumulty looks at how much President Obama is aging in office compared to his predecessors.

*** Tuesday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up:  MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts interviews Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI), NARAL Pres. Nancy Keenan, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), TSGt Jennifer Norris and Fmr. Sgt David Hall of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.  Today’s Power Panel includes: TheGrio.com’s Joy-Ann Reid, Ben Labolt and Mark McKinnon.

*** Tuesday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include former RNC Chair Michael Steele, EJ Dionne, Time’s Michael Scherer, and Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards.

*** Tuesday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: NBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviews Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) , Human Rights Campaign Pres. Chad Griffin, the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza and David Ignatius, Time’s Michael Duffy, The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter, Susan B. Anthony List Pres. Marjorie Dannenfelser and Attorney Sarah Weddington, who argued Roe v. Wade.

*** Tuesday’s “News Nation with Tamron Hall” line-up: MSNBC’s Tamron Hall interviews Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis, The Atlantic’s Molly Ball, Michael Smerconish, PJ Crowley, and the NY Time’s Eric Schmitt.

James Fallows calls Obama’s speech “the most sustainedly ‘progressive’ statement Barack Obama has made in his decade on the national stage.”

David Remnick: “Barack Obama without apology—a liberal emboldened by political victory and a desire to enter the history books with a progressive agenda. His rhetoric was not high-flown, but it was muscular, clear. Gone is the primacy of compromise, which marked Obama’s days as president of the Harvard Law Review and even his first years in office. He no longer seems determined to transcend ideology or partisanship; experience has led him toward an engagement with politics in a tougher, clearer way.”

More: “The speech was no match for the two greatest moments of oratory ever heard in Washington—Lincoln’s second Inaugural and Martin Luther King, Jr.,’s address, nearly a century later, at the Lincoln Memorial—but, if it is followed by action, it will be counted among the most important American political addresses of the modern era.”

Andrew Sullivan: "If you have long believed, as I have, that this man could easily become the liberal Reagan by the end of his second term,… then this speech will not have surprised you.” More: “It was, in some ways, then a final rejoinder to Ronald Reagan's critical qualifier to his declaration of government as the problem in January 1981. … It was to say that Reagan's solutions may have been right then but they are not right now.” Sullivan also calls it the first “self-confident center-left speech … in my adult lifetime.”

But he adds, “The first big disappointment is his not being honest with us about the entitlement state.”

Politico’s Harris and Martin call it “the most ideologically ambitious speech since Ronald Reagan’s first inaugural address a generation and a half ago.”

Politico’s Thrush calls it “the most liberal speech he has delivered as president — a blunt summons to wage war on poverty, defend entitlements for the middle class, end ‘perpetual war’ overseas and move past the calibrated progressive agenda of his first term. Gone were the pleas for bipartisanship of his first inaugural, vaporized by years of partisan battle and Obama’s own sense of a new mandate — achieving bipartisan results through force, not conciliation.”

The Boston Globe: “President Obama on Monday used his second inaugural address to call for a new spirit of unity to solve the nation’s challenges, from economic disparity to gay rights to climate change, urging a recommitment to the country’s founding principles of equality.”

Jill Lawrence: “At least 10 times during his second inaugural address, President Obama made unmistakable allusions to Republican ideas that he rejects and wants the country to reject – even as he wrapped the critiques in a call for togetherness. … Every one of these issues fractures Republicans. The speech, devoid as it was of olive branches, played into the emerging Republican consensus that Obama is trying to divide and destroy the GOP. They are right about the division part, though likely mistaken when they impute a motive to destroy.”

Despite all that, Ron Fournier was unimpressed: “If there was a sentence or sentiment that will be carved in marble and remembered by history, it was not evident Monday. President Obama's second inaugural address was hampered by the fact that he governs in one of American history’s most divided moments, grounded by the memory of promises he made four years ago to reform Washington.” More: “Whether this was a moment for the ages will depend on Obama's ability to persuade both his rivals and allies to accept the difference between absolutism and principle.”

AP: “Obama stands his ground on fiscal debates.”

Politico: “President Barack Obama insisted four years ago that the nation must make ‘hard decisions’ to preserve entitlement programs. But on Monday, the ‘hard choices’ he spoke of on health care and the deficit came with a major caveat: He’s not willing to give up much.”

“As crowds descended and the inauguration unfolded, a few museum curators in Washington kept watch for symbols and messages that would make history,” AP writes. “The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture will open during President Barack Obama’s second term, and one section will feature a large display about the first black president. Curators have been working since 2008 to gather objects, documents and images that capture his place in history.”

“Environmental groups hailed President Barack Obama’s warning Monday about climate change, but said the president’s words will soon be tested as he decides whether to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast,” AP writes.

Peter Alexander reported that Romney was home and likely not watching the inaugural. Dan Amira of New York magazine “notes it's the first time since 1997 that a presidential runner-up didn't attend his opponent's inauguration ceremony.” (H/T: Political Wire.)

National Review’s Rich Lowry: “For the Left, this is what winning looks like.” He calls the speech “a paean to collectivism, swaddled in the rhetoric of individual liberty and of fidelity to the Founding.” Obama, he says, “hopes to reorient the American mainstream and locate conservatives outside it. He wants to take the Founders from the Right and baptize the unreconstructed entitlement state and the progressive agenda in the American creed.”

More: “All in all, it was a brazen performance, as audacious in intent as it was banal in its expression. He used the Founders’ authority to advance an expansive conception of American government that would have been unrecognizable to them. Amid the pomp and the circumstances, Republicans should have heard a direct challenge. The president did them, and everyone else, the favor of enunciating the battle lines and the stakes of the fights to come.”

Bill Kristol focuses on Obama’s foreign policy and takes a hawkish view: “Our forebears were only able to "win the peace" because they first crushed out enemies in war. But under President Obama we're not committed to winning our wars. We're committed to ending them. Does Obama really think we're going to win the peace after not winning the war?”

Kristol called the speech “unmemorable,” yet David Brooks takes a completely different view: “The best Inaugural Addresses make an argument for something. President Obama’s second one, which surely has to rank among the best of the past half-century, makes an argument for a pragmatic and patriotic progressivism.”

More: “During his first term, Obama was inhibited by his desire to be postpartisan, by the need to not offend the Republicans with whom he was negotiating. Now he is liberated. Now he has picked a team and put his liberalism on full display. He argued for it in a way that was unapologetic. Those who agree, those who disagree and those of us who partly agree now have to raise our game. We have to engage his core narrative and his core arguments for a collective turn.”

But Brooks thinks “Obama misunderstands this moment. The Progressive Era, New Deal and Great Society laws were enacted when America was still a young and growing nation. They were enacted in a nation that was vibrant, raw, underinstitutionalized and needed taming. We are no longer that nation.”

Ramesh Ponnuru: “The world will little note nor long remember anything President Barack Obama said in his second inaugural address; still less will it remember any of the gushing encomiums his admirers in the press reliably produce, comparing him variously to Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln and Jesus.” He concludes: “Yes he can ... overcome strawmen.”

Stephen Hayes calls it “an aggressive, unapologetic defense of activist government and to call for a new spirit of unity even as he seeks to move the country even further left.” He adds: “The United States is now $16.4 trillion in debt. We’ve accumulated more than a third of that total since Obama’s first inaugural four years ago, an additional $20,000-plus per citizen during the Obama presidency. Even using White House projections, we’ll have more than $21 trillion by the time his second term ends. Obama doesn’t care. … The lack of attention to the debt from Obama was not an oversight. It’s simply not a priority.”

And: “When historians look back at Obama’s second inaugural, they will reread an impassioned defense of activist government and a plea for more of it. But I suspect they will also look at this address as both a reminder of Obama’s failure to address the debt in his first term and a harbinger of his unwillingness to pay for the entitlement state in his second.”

As the 40^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision takes place on Tuesday, a majority of Americans – for the first time – believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

What’s more, seven in 10 respondents oppose Roe v. Wade being overturned, which is the highest percentage on this question since 1989.

“These are profound changes,” says Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart and his colleagues.

Related: Poll shows public lowers expectations heading into Obama's 2nd term

McInturff adds that the abortion-related events and rhetoric over the past year – which included controversial remarks on abortion and rape by two Republican Senate candidates, as well as a highly charged debate over contraception – helped shaped these changing poll numbers.

“The dialogue we have had in the last year has contributed … to inform and shift attitudes.”

View the poll results here

The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, at least in the first three months of pregnancy.

According to the poll, 54 percent of adults say that abortion should be legal either always or most of the time, while a combined 44 percent said it should be illegal – either with or without exceptions. 

Recommended: Obama takes ceremonial oath, tells nation 'our journey is not complete'

That’s the first time since this poll question was first asked in 2003 that a majority maintained that abortion should be legal. Previously (with just one exception in 2008), majorities said abortion should be illegal.

In addition, a whopping 70 percent of Americans oppose the Roe v. Wade decision being overturned, including 57 percent who feel strongly about this.

That’s up from the 58 percent who said the decision shouldn’t be overturned in 1989; the 60 percent who said this in 2002; and the 66 percent who said this in 2005.

By comparison, just 24 percent now want the Roe v. Wade decision overturned, including 21 percent who feel strongly about this position.

Much of this change, the NBC/WSJ pollsters say, is coming from African Americans, Latinos and women without college degrees -- all of whom increasingly oppose the Supreme Court decision being overturned.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Jan. 12-15 of 1,000 adults (including 300 cellphone-only respondents), and it has a margin of error of plus-minus 3.1 percentage points. 

Related: 40 years after landmark decision, restrictions on abortion grow

To a greater extent than he did in his first inaugural address four years ago, in his speech Monday President Barack Obama made a point of focusing attention on issues vital to specific constituencies within his winning coalition.

Obama’s inaugural theme four years ago was the need for national unity and his call for “a new era of responsibility, a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our Nation, and the world.” And in his address Monday, Obama again included calls for unity, or what he called “collective action.”

But he went beyond that by, for the first time in a presidential inaugural address, referring explicitly to gay rights and to an event in gay rights history, the 1969 riot outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village in New York City. The Stonewall Inn protests followed a police raid on the bar and helped launch the gay rights movement.

Related: Obama takes ceremonial oath, tells nation 'our journey is not complete'

Jim Bourg / Reuters

President Barack Obama speaks during swearing-in ceremonies on the West front of the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 21, 2013.

In a statement issued after Obama’s victory last November, the Human Rights Campaign, the leading gay rights advocacy group, said, “HRC and our energized supporters have raised or contributed more than $20 million to re-elect President Obama and to advance marriage equality and other electoral priorities this (2012) cycle.”

In his address, Obama called for states to give legal recognition to marriage by same-sex couples: “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law – for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said.

Slideshow: 57th Presidential Inauguration

The major action on this issue will not come from Obama or Congress but from the Supreme Court, which on March 26, 2013 will hear oral arguments in two cases that will decide whether a state can define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Also, the high court will decide whether a section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as solely between one man and one woman, violates the constitutional rights of same-sex couples.

Obama linked the Stonewall protests to the 1848 women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., and the 1965 voting rights march in Selma, Ala.

“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall … .”

Obama also acknowledged issues important to feminists, to people barred from voting by voter identification laws, and to immigrants illegally present in the United States who hope Congress this year will pass a law creating a process allowing them to become legal residents.

Calling for equal pay for men and women, he said, “Our journey is not complete until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts.”

On voting rights, he said, “Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.”

And on immigration, Obama said that he and Congress must “find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity” and change the law so that “bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our workforce rather than expelled from our country.”

Referencing what’s likely to be a major legislative battle of the next several months, Obama alluded to his call for greater restrictions on the purchase of guns in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, saying, “Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”

Recommended: Obama's second term begins

Earlier in the address he reiterated a theme from his 2009 inaugural address, urging Congress to take steps to remedy the effects of catastrophic weather events and global climate change.

“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.”

Applauding this part of the speech, Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “This is a call to action against the climate chaos that is sweeping our nation and threatening our future. Now it's time to act. Power plants are our single largest source of carbon pollution. We must cut that pollution.”

The crucial arena for action on this issue may not be Congress but the Environmental Protection Agency. While the House did pass cap-and-trade carbon emissions legislation when the Democrats had the majority in 2009, the prospects for such legislation now seem doubtful at best. The Republican-led House is likely to keep a skeptical eye on additional subsidies for alternative energy technologies, although Congress did enact an extension of the Production Tax Credit for wind and other renewable electricity projects as part of the tax bill Obama signed into law on Jan. 2.

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

President Barack Obama is sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as First lady Michelle Obama and daughters, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama look on during the public ceremonial inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013.

Updated 4:33 p.m. — President Barack Obama issued a call to unity in his second inaugural address, urging the nation to move past the divisions that marked the last four years in politics and complete the work of living up to America's founding principles.

The president, in a speech that blended together post-partisan rhetoric and policy declarations, highlighted the progress made during his first term to end foreign wars and turn around the economy.

But Obama said that there was much unfinished work ahead, and he used Monday's speech to urge political leaders to finally rise above bitter squabbling — a recurring theme of his first term, and a mark of how difficult it has been for Obama to live up to his 2008 vow to change Washington's business as usual.

"Our journey is not complete," Obama said during one refrain in his speech.

Related: The full text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address

"We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate," Obama said. "We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall."

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, respectively, shortly before noon; Monday's oath of office was ceremonial, following their formal, constitutionally-prescribed swearing-in on Sunday.

Monday's ceremonies coincided with the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Obama nodded to the slain civil rights leader during his speech, and the nation's first African-American president used one of King's Bibles during today's inauguration.

The president's speech, though, strode between acknowledging the accomplishments of his first term and the new priorities for his second. The president begins his new term this week intent upon pursuing an ambitious agenda following his decisive re-election victory last November over Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

Related: First Thoughts: Obama's second term begins

Rebuilding the economy, strengthening entitlement programs for future generations and addressing the threat of climate change were among the initiatives upon which the president touched during his speech. Obama nodded toward other priorities, that were set to define his next four years in office: equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans, immigration reform that offers undocumented residents a pathway to citizenship and new rules to curb gun violence.

But as political leaders from both parties looked on from the inaugural platform, Obama avoided much of the hard-charging rhetoric of last year's campaign.

Romney, the erstwhile GOP nominee, spent Inauguration Day at his home in La Jolla, Calif., and a former aide told NBC News it was unlikely that the former Massachusetts governor would watch today's festivities.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate last fall, said today was not a day to emphasize partisan divisions.

"But today, we put those disagreements aside," Ryan said in a statement. "Today, we remember what we share in common."

To be sure, a variety of bruising political battles between Obama and Congress — in particular, a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans — loomed on the horizon. On Wednesday, Republicans said, they would vote on a measure to extend the nation's debt limit by a few months.

Earlier in the day, Obama and the first family attended a service at St. John's Episcopal Church — the "Church of the Presidents," as it is sometimes known — just two blocks from the White House.

There, Dr. Luis Leon, the rector of the church, led a series of "prayers for the nation," Washington Cardinal Donald Weurl led a Gospel reading, and an Alexandria, Va., rabbi offered a final blessing. Biden and his wife also attended the service.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were among the dignitaries in attendance during the oath-of-office ceremonies during late Monday morning. Celebrities including musician Jay-Z and actress Eva Longoria joined government officials on the inaugural platform, and attendees were treated to performances by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor.

Obama retreated to a traditional luncheon on Capitol Hill following the inaugural ceremonies before participating in the parade down Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue.

"I recognize that democracy is not always easy, and I recognize there are profound differences in this room," Obama said in a toast before a bipartisan group of lawmakers, "but I just want to say thank you for your service and I want to thank your families for their service, because regardless of our political persuasions and perspectives, I know that all of us serve because we believe that we can make America for future generations."

Afterward, the president and first lady entered the motorcade from the Capitol and back to the White House, leaving the presidential motorcade at moments to walk for a portion of the trip.

The president and first lady will make their way to glitzy, black-tie inaugural balls later this evening before wrapping the whirlwind day of festivities.

NBC's Peter Alexander contributed to this report.

Obama’s second term begins… After private ceremony yesterday, the president delivers his second inaugural address at a swearing-in event on Capitol Hill beginning at 11:30 am ET… Expect Obama to talk about rebuilding the middle class… Another big moment, another big speech… Friday’s big fiscal-fight development… NBC/WSJ poll numbers on abortion are released at 6:30 pm ET… And Biden and 2016.

Jacquelyn Martin / AP

President Barack Obama smiles as he arrives at St. John's Church in Washington, Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, for a church service during the 57th Presidential Inauguration.

*** Obama’s second term begins: Technically, President Obama’s second term already started yesterday, after he took his oath of office in a private ceremony at the White House (given that Jan. 20 fell on a Sunday). But ceremoniously, it begins today at the swearing-in event on Capitol Hill at 11:30 am ET. Obama’s second inaugural address is expected to echo the themes from his first, including trying to quell the divisive politics of Washington. (Even if not accomplishing that was one of his first term’s biggest shortcomings, it’s something that the American public still wants.) Yet the president’s advisers say he’s also prepared to take a more realistic approach. “We’re going to do a better job in the second term of, while we’re going to do all we can to work with Congress and negotiate, to also make sure the American people are more connected to what’s going on here,” David Plouffe said on CBS yesterday. But don’t expect today’s speech to be a laundry list of proposals and programs. Remember, he has his State of the Union -- on Feb. 12 -- to do that.

*** Expect Obama to talk about rebuilding the middle class: Looking back at some of the most recent second inaugural addresses, they’ve typically been a continuation of that president’s first-term message (and re-election theme). For Bill Clinton, it was preparing the country for the 21^st Century. For George W. Bush, it was security and freedom. And if that continuation theme is any guide, expect Obama to talk A LOT about rebuilding the middle class. After all, it was the central theme of his re-election campaign. On “Meet the Press” yesterday, Obama adviser David Axelrod stressed that point. “How do you create an economy, rebuild an economy, in which the American dream, the American compact, is fresh, where people who work hard feel like they can get ahead?” he asked. “And that's not just about dealing with the fiscal crisis, it's about education, it's about research and development, it's about controlling our energy future. All of these are part of the equation.”

*** Another big moment, another big speech: Four years ago, right before Obama’s first inaugural address, we made this point: He was going to use speeches to help him govern more than any other modern American president, creating many of the defining moments of his presidency. And that proved to be true over the past four years. When the going got tough on passing health care, he gave a speech. When he laid out his goals on the Middle East, he spoke in Cairo. When he talked about the necessity of war to defeat evil, he used his Nobel Prize speech. When he unveiled his re-election message on the economy -- with the idea that Mitt Romney would be his likely opponent -- he did so with remarks in Osawatomie, KS. And when he needed to console the nation after the Gabby Giffords and Newtown shootings, he did so with a moving address. And expect that to continue -- today and over the next four years.

*** Today’s tick tock: Around publication time, the First Family attends a service at St. John’s Church… The swearing-in ceremony is at 11:30 am ET… The inaugural parade begins at 2:35 pm ET… And the two official inaugural balls take place tonight at the Washington Convention Center… Tomorrow, Obama attends a national prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral at 10:30 am ET.

*** Friday’s big fiscal-fight development: Turning to other news, we can’t emphasize enough how big Friday’s news was that House Republicans would raise the debt ceiling for three months and instead use the budget process to demand spending cuts. It was another fiscal victory for the Obama White House, which vowed that it wouldn’t negotiate over the debt ceiling. But it also might have been the smartest political move the House Republicans have made since the 2012 election. By demanding that the Senate pass their first budget since 2009, they put the burden on Senate Democrats. And Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said on “Meet the Press” that Senate Democrats would produce a budget with tax reform in it. “We're going to do a budget this year, and it's going to have revenues in it. And our Republican colleagues better get used to that fact.” Bottom line: We’re going to have another fiscal showdown, but it will be over the budget and government operations – not over the debt ceiling, which has to please Wall Street and those worried about a potential default.

*** Another NBC/WSJ poll release: Tomorrow is the 40^th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. And pegged to that, we’ll release some very NEWSWORTHY abortion-related numbers from our most recent NBC/WSJ poll beginning at 6:30 pm ET.

*** Biden and 2016: Finally, don’t miss one of Washington’s most overlooked political stories: how Vice President Joe Biden is methodically laying the groundwork for 2016. The New York Times: “Gov. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the first presidential primary state, was among the people to join Mr. Biden, his family and close political associates at the vice president’s residence [for his swearing-in ceremony yesterday]. The night before, Mr. Biden attended a pre-inaugural party of Democrats from Iowa, the first caucus state.” The governor of New Hampshire? Partying with Iowa Democrats? Hmmmmmm…. In all seriousness, he's been carefully laying the groundwork with Iowa and New Hampshire Democrats for months. Throughout the re-election, he was keeping tabs on those key early states, congratulating winners there, etc. Sitting VPs may be Jay Leno punching bags, but they are familiar to activists.

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The AP previews Obama’s inaugural speech today. “President Barack Obama has prepared a second inaugural address that broadly lays out his vision for the country's future, setting the stage for looming debates over taxes, guns, immigration and other issues while leaving the details for another day. The speech, slated right after Obama takes an oath to ‘faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States’ Monday on the Capitol's west front, includes no new policy, aides say. Rather, the president plans to use the moment as it traditionally has been in most of the 56 previous inaugurations — to talk about founding American values and their importance to the country's success today.”

More: “Inaugural addresses are not typically partisan, and White House aides say Obama doesn't intend to call out his political opponents. But they say he will stand up for his values and vision that were supported by the majority of voters in the November election. Obama's prepared text notes that spirited debate is a hallmark of a vibrant democracy, aides say, but that the country's leaders can't let disagreement prevent them from finding common ground to move the country forward. The president also plans to encourage Americans to continue making their voices heard to shape the debate as policy is made, aides said.”

The New York Times on yesterday’s private swearing-in ceremony: “With only his family beside him, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office for a second term on Sunday in advance of Monday’s public pomp, facing a bitterly divided government at home and persistent threats abroad that inhibit his effort to redefine America’s use of power. “ 

Ron Fournier looks at passages from Lincoln’s second inaugural address that President Obama might want to reflect on and consider.

National Journal: “President Nixon Murdered Pigeons and Other Inauguration Facts.”

NBC’s Carrie Dann: “From drunken speeches to dead canaries, a guide to our quirky inaugural history.”

NBC’s Michael O’Brien: “Debt fight, gun control and immigration top president's to-do list.”

“The challenge for Obama is no different than that faced by Washington and the 15 other two-term presidents – how to make a second inaugural address sound fresh, meaningful and forward-looking. Almost all of Obama’s predecessors failed at this,” National Journal’s Condon writes.

David Maraniss: “Even now, on Day 1,460 of his presidency, the question persists: Who is he, really? There is a common refrain that Obama seems elusive, if not mysterious; less easily categorized and understood than the last Democratic president. Bill Clinton’s traits were so extra-large and variegated, for better and worse, that something in him seemed to connect to almost anybody and anything. No doubt Obama is a different breed of cat. Aspects of his political personality are less vivid than Clinton’s. But he is not overly elusive. His mystery is hiding in plain sight. There is a pattern to his behavior, just as there was with Clinton. Where Clinton was protean, Obama is more slowly evolving. People tend to forget, or underestimate, that he had scant executive experience before becoming president. Behind his veneer of ultra-cool control he was struggling to figure things out. Now, after four years, his presidential identity has started to approach its full shape, which will become clearer from now to 2016.”

“Obama was sworn in several hours after Vice President Joe Biden took his oath at 8:21 a.m. at his official residence at the Naval Observatory. The early hour for his ceremony was because Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor -- who was the first Latina and third woman to administer the oath for a vice president -- had to catch a train to New York for a book signing. She will return in time for Monday’s Capitol ceremony,” the Boston Globe reports.

“Former President Bill Clinton warned a group of top Democratic donors at a private Saturday meeting not to underestimate the passions that gun control stirs among many Americans,” Politico writes.

Said Clinton: “Do not patronize the passionate supporters of your opponents by looking down your nose at them. A lot of these people live in a world very different from the world lived in by the people proposing these things. I know because I come from this world."

Vice President Joe Biden pledged to pursue climate change in an Obama second term in a surprise appearance at the Green Ball Sunday night. “I'll tell you what my green dream is: that we finally face up to climate change," Biden said, adding, “I don't intend on ending this four years without getting an awful lot more done. … Keep the faith. … There is science in the White House."

“Four years after President Barack Obama promised to change the culture of Washington, it’s hard to imagine how his ethics, transparency and campaign finance pledges could have backfired more thoroughly,” Roll Call writes. “Even before the president solicited unlimited corporate donations for his inauguration and announced he will reinvent his campaign operation as an unrestricted lobbying group, government watchdog groups were already fed up with Obama’s many reversals. Grievances include his failure to follow through on pledges to overhaul the public financing system, to fill vacancies at the Federal Election Commission and to make his administration the most transparent in history. Not to mention his decision to embrace unrestricted super PACs after saying he would reject them. From a public relations point of view, Obama would have drawn far less criticism had he promised — and done — nothing on the government watchdog front.”