SOMETHING ELSE LEFT OUT – AT 9:42 A.M. ET:  Byron York points out still another glaring omission in the inaugural address.  When you come right down to it, this is downright scandalous, as it lies at the heart of our national problems.

Why did President Obama barely mention unemployment in his inaugural address? After all, today's jobless rate, 7.8 percent, is precisely what it was when Obama first took the oath of office in January 2009. It's even worse; if you combine the unemployed with those who are working part-time but want a full-time job, and those who have been too discouraged to look recently, the figure is 14.4 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That is a desperately bad situation. People know it. In poll after poll, Americans list jobs and the economy as the issue most important to the country. They've been saying the same thing every day Barack Obama has been in office.

And yet, in his inaugural address the president said essentially nothing about the nation's most pressing problem. Why?

Because he didn't have to. His base supporters -- loyalists and activists who would declare war on a Republican president with a similar unemployment rate -- continue to give Obama a pass on joblessness. There are other issues, like immigration reform, climate change and raising taxes, that excite them more than economic recovery.

COMMENT:  That is exactly right.  Barack Obama doesn't represent the old Democratic Party, as we knew it – a party of working people, passionately pro-defense, and unashamedly patriotic.  He represents the Dem Party that has grown up since the late 1960s – contemptuous of its traditional followers, indifferent to the cause of freedom internationally, anti-religion, but devoted to whatever trendy issue invades their cocktail parties.  The trendies are just delighted this morning because Obama committed himself to fighting "climate change," or whatever it's called this week.  Al Gore came out of the woodwork to praise the inaugural speech, undoubtedly hoping for a cut of the action. 

As far as the unemployed are concerned, the new Dems aren't much interested.  Who are those common people anyway?

January 22, 2013