YouSpeak: Obama’s Next Four Years

What he needs to accomplish

January 22, 2013
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President Barack Obama stood before roughly one million spectators Monday at the public swearing-in ceremony that officially began his second term as America’s 44th president.

Obama has pledged to tackle two volatile issues during his next administration: gun control and immigration reform, but there is much more work to be done.

This week’s “YouSpeak” asks: “What does President Obama need to accomplish in his second term?”

“YouSpeak” typically appears each Monday.

If you have a suggestion for a question you’d like us to ask, post it in the comments section below.

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  • Joe Chan

    Joe Chan Profile

  • Alan Wong

    Executive Producer

    Alan Wong oversees a team of video producers who create video content for BU's online editorial publications and social media channels. He has produced more than 300 videos for Boston University, shuffling through a number of countries in the process: Australia, Argentina, Peru, Ireland, China, and Cambodia. He has also bored audiences in Atlanta and Boston giving talks on video for higher ed. Profile

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There are 3 comments on YouSpeak: Obama’s Next Four Years

  2. I don’t think attendance was more than 40% of the first inauguration. Probably closer to 600-700 thousand.

    As far as your video. Mostly complimentary of Obama, as would be expected from low information voters.

    Obama will continue to destroy the country. Only so he might be rebirth it as a new Marxist utopia.

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  3. Every minute he wastes on gun control is a minute he can’t spend trying to tackle substantive issues like the economy, debt, foreign policy, et al. It’s a complete waste of political capital for several reasons. First, it won’t help. The federal assault weapons ban was in place for ten years and did absolutely nothing to reduce crime rates (which has been backed by numerous studies). Secondly, it won’t even pass. The House is still firmly Republican and even enough Senate Democrats have read the Constitution that an assault weapons ban might not even reach the floor for a vote. Thirdly, it will shatter any hope that the Democrats might retake the House in 2014. Forget about it. The first assault weapons ban led to the Republican Revolution of 1994, and gun rights advocates are better mobilized today than they were then. Gun rights supporters vote and they turn out in midterm elections like many other voting groups do not.

    Basically, the less time Obama tries to pass gun control laws, the better chance he has of getting anything else done in his second term. I see no compelling reason for him to waste any political capital trying to take away people’s rights, when he has such an opportunity to do the opposite.

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