January 21 – The Second Inauguration of America’s First Black President; Obama’s Speech and the Challenges he Faces; “Why we Must Help Mali”

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Part 1	We begin with the second inauguration of President Obama that coincided with Martin Luther King Day and get an appraisal of the 44^th President from James Kloppenberg professor of American History and Chair of the History Department at Harvard University. He is the author of “Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition” and we discuss the apparent comfort most Americans have with their first black president.
Part 2	Then we look into the president’s second inaugural speech with a former chief speechwriter for the U.S. Representative to the United Nations and author of “Live From the Campaign Trail: The Greatest Presidential Campaign Speeches of the 20^th Century and How They Shaped Modern America”. Michael Cohen joins us to discuss today’s speech and how much it spelled out Obama’s vision to address the challenges ahead as he enters his second term with a gridlocked Congress and a divided country.
Part 3	Then finally we look into the roiling region of North Africa where the residue of terrorism from Algeria and arms from Libya are turning the Sahel into a new front in the war on terror. The former U.S. Ambassador to Mali, Vicki Huddleston joins us. She had a recent article in the New York Times, “Why We Must Help Mali” and we discuss how neglect towards the region led to a belated effort to address a deteriorating situation that could have been more easily solved earlier.