President Obama called for a 'we' nation in his Inauguration Address. Art convenes. It is not just inspirational. It is aspirational. It pricks the walls of our compartmentalized minds opens our hearts and makes us brave. And that's what we need most in our country today.

Humor helps ease the tension of race and the differences in society. If there wasn't comedy I don't know if Obama could have ever become president.

So you know I think that the federal government the Democrats and President Obama are selling a lot of hope and change but no delivery of any of those promises.

President Obama chose politics over leadership. 'Hope' and 'Change' have become bait-and-switch.

House and Senate Republicans are now united in adopting earmark bans. We hope President Obama will follow through on his support for an earmark ban by pressing Democratic leaders to join House and Senate Republicans in taking this critical step to restore public trust.

We hope President Obama will now respect the will of the people change course and commit to making the changes they are demanding. To the extent he is willing to do this we are ready to work with him.

For a person who promised hope and civility in politics Mr. Obama has shown a borderline obsessiveness in blaming Mr. Bush.

For me Barack Obama's election was a milestone of the most extraordinary kind. On the day he was elected I felt such hope in my heart. I thought we were seeing the beginning of a new era of equal opportunity across race and gender such as America had never known before.

There is something uniquely depressing about the fact that the National Portrait Gallery's version of the Barack Obama 'Hope' poster previously belonged to a pair of lobbyists. Depressing because Mr. Obama's Washington was not supposed to be the lobbyists' Washington the place we learned to despise during the last administration.

I hope Obama gets scary in the next four years 'cuz he ain't gotta worry about getting re-elected.

The only people who live in a post-black world are four people who live in a little white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. The idea that America is post-racial or post-black because a man I admire Barack Obama is president of the United States is a joke. And I hope no one will even wonder about this crazy fiction again.

To my great disappointment it appears that the politics of division are making a big comeback. Many Americans share my disappointment - especially those who were filled with great hope a few years ago when then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy in Springfield Illinois.

Everyone who feels stuck in the Obama economy is right to focus on the here and now. And I hope you understand this too if you're feeling left out or passed by: You have not failed your leaders have failed you.

For President Obama 'home of the brave' are not just the last words of our national anthem but also a call to action. This is why the president's policies and our platform include incentives to train and hire our troops returning home. Not only because of our moral responsibility but because it makes for a stronger more secure American economy.

I saw the president make the tough calls in the Situation Room - and today our troops in Iraq have finally come home so America can do some nation building here at home. That was the change that we believed in. That was the change we fought for. That was the change President Obama delivered.

White House operatives went to great lengths to show Obama shifting focus from wars abroad to domestic issues at home.

Don't kid yourself. President Obama's decision to withdraw 33 000 troops from Afghanistan before he stands for reelection is not driven by the United States' 'position of strength' in the war zone as much as it is by grim economic and political realities at home.