Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran on Tuesday could barely contain his excitement on Inauguration Day, extolling the "President with a purpose" and his "history-making call to action." Moran, who has a long history of fawning over Barack Obama, gushed, "He was weaving the new tapestry of America as he sees it."
Moran hyped the "new American progressivism unleashed." The journalist continued, "He is a president renewed in office by the votes of 65 million Americans. He is a president with a purpose."
Regarding the aggressively liberal speech, Moran enthused, "More than half a million Americans stream into Washington to watch President Barack Obama take the oath of office once more and deliver a history-making call to action."
Using explicit ideological labels, Moran reiterated, "A man, a president with a purpose and an agenda, a progressive agenda, no question about it." The hosts of Tuesday's Good Morning America [1] used the "liberal" or "progressive" label four times in just two minutes and 45 seconds. Apparently, now that Obama has been safely reelected, it's safe for ABC to use such words.
On November 5, 2012 [2], Moran wistfully recalled the Obama "magic" and reminiced about the President's "hinge of history."
On November 14, 2012 [3], the reporter raved over the President's "smackdown" of Republicans.
A partial transcript of the January 22 segment
12:35am EST
TERRY MORAN: Tonight on a special edition of Nightline, the big day. More than half a million Americans stream into Washington to watch President Barack Obama take the oath of office once more and deliver a history-making call to action.
...
MORAN: But this was more than just a celebration. And Barack Obama was not just there to enjoy the day. He is a president renewed in office by the votes of 65 million Americans. He is a president with a purpose.
BARACK OBAMA: My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment and we will see that so long as we seize it together.
MORAN: This moment, it's more than the pomp and ceremony. For while inaugurations may be full of traditions, whether in the swearing in itself, presidents choose their Bibles, Obama taking the oath this time on two of them, one Abraham Lincoln's, the other one Martin Luther King Jr.'s on the national holiday honoring the civil rights martyr, or the 21 gun salute or all the trumpets blowing fanfare, inaugurations also tell us something deeper about ourselves and the president we have chosen to lead us.
OBAMA: We have always understood that when times change, so must we.
MORAN: Change. This time around that word means something else to Barack Obama. He used his second inauguration to make an audacious claim that the coalition that reelected him, younger, more diverse, non-native, more socially liberal, is the next America, the rising generation and he spoke directly to and for them. It was a new American progressivism unleashed.
OBAMA: For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it. We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. Our journey is not complete until no citizen is forced to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.
MORAN: And you could see in the vast crowd, his crowd, this was their moment in a different way than four years ago, a moment won after fierce ideological combat and hard political work.
...
MORAN: He was weaving the new tapestry of America as he sees it. For the first time in an inaugural address, explicitly mentioning gay rights calling for marriage equality.
OBAMA: Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law. For if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well.
MORAN: And with an eye on the immigration reform he has promised and the 60 percent of the Hispanic vote he won.
OBAMA: Until bright young students and engineers are listed in our work force rather than expelled from our country–
DONNA BRAZILE: Clearly the president has an agenda. He has an agenda that he wants to pursue in his second term. Some Republicans may not agree with that agenda. But I thought his speech was broadly American. It was patriotic. It was uplifting.
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MORAN: A man, a president with a purpose and an agenda, a progressive agenda, no question about it.
-- Scott Whitlock is the senior news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here [4] to follow him on Twitter.