President Barack Obama and Vice President Biden Take Oath of Office
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much. Good evening everyone. A big night tonight as Washington gets ready for an even bigger day tomorrow, as many as 800,000 people expected. Tomorrow morning, President Obama will make the journey from the White House to this end of Pennsylvania avenue. Up here to Capitol Hill. Then at noon, on the capitol of west front, he will rest one hand on a pair of historic bibles, raised the other and ushering his second term. He is going to address the crowd, of course, and the nation and the world, be paraded, serenaded, honored with receptions and welcomed into the history books. But, for the first time in a long time, the first time since the Ronald Reagan second inauguration, it will all be a formality. That is because it happens on the 21st. But law requires that presidents and vice presidents be sworn in on the 20th. So, today the 20th, they were in two quiet ceremonies they were.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear. That I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully.</s>ROBERTS: That I will execute --</s>OBAMA: That I will faithfully execute.</s>ROBERTS: The office of president of the United States.</s>OBAMA: The office of president of the United States.</s>ROBERTS: And will to the best of my ability.</s>OBAMA: And will to the best of my ability.</s>ROBERTS: Preserve, protect and defend --</s>OBAMA: Preserve, protect and defend -</s>ROBERTS: The constitution of the United States.</s>OBAMA: The constitution of the United States.</s>ROBERTS: So help you God?</s>OBAMA: So, help me, God.</s>ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.</s>OBAMA: Thank you, Mr. Chief justice. Thank you so much.</s>COOPER: Chief Justice John Roberts administrating the oath, of course, last time as you well know, he fumbled the words, this time he nailed it. President Obama using a family bible today. Tomorrow, he'll use the Lincoln bible and one belonging to Martin Luther King Junior. A lot to talk about tonight, vice president Biden took the oath earlier, his residence the naval observatory. Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor doing the honors there. He, too, went off without a hitch. Yesterday though, during a surprise appearance at the Iowa state inaugural ball the vice president did -- well, sort of a Joe Biden. Take a look.</s>JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm proud to be president of the United States. But I'm prouder to be</s>COOPER: A few seconds later, of course, he corrected himself. In just a short time ago, he and his wife and the first lady and of course, President Obama all spoke at one of the big receptions around town tonight. The president's subject was hair, specifically Michelle Obama's new bangs.</s>OBAMA: First of all, I love Michelle Obama. And to address the most significant event of this weekend, I love her bangs. She looks good. She always looks good.</s>COOPER: President Obama just earlier tonight. Some raw politics now, looking ahead to tomorrow and, of course, looking ahead at the next four years. We have a team of professionals here, who have seen a lot of presidential history being made. Republican consultant is joining us, Margaret Hoover, former press secretary for President George W. Bush, Ari Fleischer is with us, former press President Clinton adviser, pro-Obama super PAC mastermind, Paul Begala and Van Jones, mastermind, friend and adviser of President Obama, currently president of rebuild the dream. Paul, you wrote an article in "the Daily Beast" I think it was today, in which, I want to get it straight. You basically said, the president should say all the right things in his speech tomorrow about coming together and about unity, and then he should go out and be ruthless?</s>PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, yes. He famously hosted Steven Spielberg and Daniel day-Lewis and the stars behind the movie "Lincoln." And that is the lesson of Lincoln, right? If you read in Lincoln's first inaugural, he talked about the appealing to federal angels of our nature. And then he went to war. He tried, President Obama has tried. But, I think presidents have to change - try to change the culture in which they're placed. But in this case, this division that we have in the country, it's not going to be healed. It wasn't hailed by President Clinton who desperately wanted to, and it wasn't healed by President Bush. It has not been healed by president Barack Obama. So, you run the country with the climate you have not what you want.</s>COOPER: So, the sense of you are saying, it doesn't matter what he says tomorrow, that he should base just lips over - but be ruthless?</s>BEGALA: Well, I think he has to pursue his agenda the way president Lincoln did, with -- yes, with relentless commitment but, of course, he'll say -- presidents have to be unifying figures, but I think the central political miscalculation was he actually thought his mere presence would --</s>COOPER: So, Van Jones, when the president is talking about unity and working together tomorrow, Paul Begala is going to be saying yadda, yadda, yadda, in his head. Do you buy that? that he should say one thing, but?</s>VAN JONES, PRESIDENT, REBUILD THE DREAM: Well, I think the more eloquent way to say this, is I think he needs to say that he wants unity. But not unity at all costs, there's something more important than people just getting together in this town. There are people hurting in towns across America. They deserve a better economy and he has got to be able show, both, the willingness to work with anybody, but also the willingness to work against anybody who stops him from doing a good job as president of the United States.</s>COOPER: So, Ari, isn't that exactly what Republicans who say that compromise is a dirty word -- and that it is important stand by your principles?</s>ARI FLEISCHER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I love Paul, because Paul is he's outing the president's second term about what he is really after. And as the fundamental issue as he going to actually tried to strike deals with the Republicans for big picture of governance and get things done or does he decide that the only way to get things done is to defeat the Republicans in the midterm election, to just run on politics, tactically maneuver, defeat Republicans, don't worry about the nation, and do what he wants to do in the final two years?</s>BEGALA: I am for striking deals, if you watch that movie, "Lincoln," you're for striking deals -- I'm for cutting deals, but I'm not just for saying everybody should come together because here I am. But last night --</s>FLEISCHER: When you say be ruthless, Paul, if a Republican, if a tea party member said be ruthless people would be screaming at you.</s>BEGALA: What I think he should do --</s>FLEISCHER: Anderson says --</s>COOPER: Well, I wasn't quoting, I was --</s>BEGALA: I'm sure I did use that word. But, what that means it's not just saying come let's reason together. Give them something, and then take something. Do the grimy realistic -- sometimes unpleasant work of running the country.</s>MARGARET HOOVER , CNN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: And this is the magic that the movie "Lincoln" illustrated is that the passage of the 13th amendment happened in a far more polarized Congress than the current Congress we have. And if they can do anything -- President Obama is not going to have a major legacy piece in terms of legislative achievement if he doesn't have Republican support. So, something has got to be struck.</s>COOPER: But, you don't see Republican support. If you look at these polls, I mean, he's got 55 percent of the support overall, large part among Democrats. But among Republicans, I think, it is only --</s>COOPER: Let's take a look at this, approval 55 percent, 43 percent. But, if you look at how it breaks down among Democrats, he is doing strongly well nine in 10 Democrats approve of him. But, that number for Republicans jut one in ten.</s>FLEISCHER: That's going to be the case for any president you have. The trick is, you have still find areas of common ground and for President Obama to meet the big ones. It's going to have to be Medicare and Medicaid, the things that are making the nation go bankrupt. These are soccer side for the Democrats.</s>JONES: Will he touch them? Well, here's what I think. First of all, I think that this president has figured out what it takes to get Republicans to come with him. I think he spent too much time trying to be too nice. It's amazing to me to hear conservatives say he never reached out. You are Democrats.</s>COOPER: But, if you look in history, I mean, who second terms have not worked out how most presidents think they're going to work out. Something happens, President Bush the financial crisis, president Clinton the impeachment. We don't know happened to Nixon, Reagan or Ron Contra (ph). Paul, another thing you said, is that the inaugural is beautiful architectural blueprint etched in sand?</s>JONES: This guy's awesome.</s>BEGALA: The great philosopher who first said, stuff happens. President Bush, who Ari served, George W. Bush, in his first inaugural never mentioned terrorism. Of course, that was the topic that dominated his term. I reread Eisenhower's second inaugural, because I saw that the president was telling people that he going to think about Eisenhower a lot. Eisenhower gave a stirring speech about - mostly about the cold war and confronting communism. Part of the - probably the most important thing he did in his second term was send troops into little rock. Not into Berlin, but little rock to enforce desegregation, he signed the first civil rights law since the civil war. So, Eisenhower hardly spoke about that in the second inaugural. He mentioned it, but hardly. So, I think mostly presidents have no idea what they're about to encounter and that is the nature of life.</s>HOOVER: And outside events end up shaping the legacy. And how they respond, the legacy is what a matters. The president's maximum political power and validation is right now in this moment and in the next year, and the question is, did he strike while the iron is hot, and take to the tendency which will be to appeal to the democratic base and try to ram something through, or does he do something which may be against his nature and try to reach out to Republicans, work with maybe Marco Rubio on immigration, try have a real legacy.</s>COOPER: I think your former boss saying, you know, I have political capital to spend and I'm going to spend it. Do you see the same for President Obama?</s>FLEISCHER: I do. And the interesting thing about political capital is, mandates are that which you create as the president. You can create more and you can grow more if you do well. And if the economy comes back and if you can convince people come with you. But there's a wild card here, and it is Iran. Nobody needs to forget that Iran is going to be a major issue in President Obama's life and he is going to have to wrestle with in a serious way.</s>COOPER: We are going to thank you all. We are going to continue talk to you throughout this hour. We als0 have breaking news now, can you almost hear the celebrating in Baltimore. That's because just moments ago, the Baltimore Ravens beat the New England's Patriots the AFC championship and or heading to the super bowl. Earlier today, the San Francisco 49ers, they have got the Atlanta falcons for the NFC bird. They set the stage for history making matchup between a pair of coaches who happens to brother, fascinating stuff, Baltimore's John and San Francisco's Jim Harbaugh. Jim played out quarterback for a string of NFL teams. John as followed in the footsteps of his father. Jack, who build a career coaching CWA. Now, as a I said, it's the first time in history this has happened, so the brother on brother matchup is clear to be a heavy story line in a lead up to the game. We're going to have a lot more coming up in this hour. More inauguration covered ahead Let us know what you think. Follow me on twitter now @andersoncooper. I will be tweeting tonight. How has president Obama changed the country and how has Washington changed the president. Is this the same man he was four years ago? "New York Times" Jodi Cantor has just ring a fascinating story about it, and joins us next along with our David Gergen as or "360" inaugural coverage continuous.