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It's All Politics
6:03 am
Sun January 20, 2013

Presidential Double Take: The Difference Four Years Makes

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Credit Getty Images/AFP / NPR
President Obama seems to have picked up a few gray hairs in the four years since he was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009 (left). On the right, he's shown in December 2012.
Credit AP / NPR
Here's President Dwight Eisenhower and first lady Mamie on Inauguration Day in 1953 (left) and 1957 (right).
Credit Getty Images/AFP / NPR
President Obama seems to have picked up a few gray hairs in the four years since he was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009 (left). On the right, he's shown in December 2012.
Credit AP / NPR

President Ronald Reagan posed for an official White House photo during his first year in office (1981, left). On right, he spoke to the nation early in his second term, in February 1986.

Credit AP / NPR

President Bill Clinton's January 1993 official White House photo (left) is stacked up against an image of him being sworn in for a second time on Jan. 20, 1997.

Credit AFP/Getty Images / NPR
President George W. Bush greeted supporters at an inaugural ball in 2001 (left). Four years later, he was sworn in again on Jan. 20, 2005.
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Originally published on Mon January 21, 2013 3:56 pm

Every president gets sworn in once, but it's a smaller club of presidents who manage to get there twice. Here's a look at some recent presidents who served two terms. See who changed the most (or the least) in four years.

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

It's All Politics
6:03 am
Sun January 20, 2013

Obama So Far: Making History, Inspiring An Opposition

Credit Carolyn Kaster / AP
President Obama walks outside the Oval Office on May 3.
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Originally published on Sun January 20, 2013 9:17 am

Any American president hoping to stake a claim to being viewed by future generations as great and transformative — or at least very good and effective — would be wise to choose his predecessor well.

To that end, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan probably couldn't have done better than to follow, respectively, James Buchanan, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter.

Similarly, President Obama no doubt benefited from comparisons to George W. Bush, who's unlikely to make many historians' lists of the presidential greats.

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Around the Nation
6:02 am
Sun January 20, 2013

Dependent On Arms Plant, N.Y. Town Braces For Gun Laws' Impact

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Credit Marie Cusick for NPR
Standing near the Remington Arms factory, Beth Neale, deputy mayor of Ilion, N.Y., says she's watched a lot of large manufacturers leave the region. She's not sure Ilion would easily recover from losing Remington.
Credit Mike Groll / AP
Workers from Remington Arms Company in Ilion, N.Y., talk with Assemblyman Marc Butler and Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney about gun legislation at the Capitol on Jan. 14 in Albany, N.Y.
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Originally published on Sun January 20, 2013 1:30 pm

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Around the Nation
6:02 am
Sun January 20, 2013

Welcome To Alaska, Where Winter Is Cold And Bikes Are Fat

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Credit Josh Spice
Bike shop owner Kevin Breitenbach rides a fat bike in the White Mountains National Recreation Area in Alaska in March.
Credit Josh Spice
The wider tires on fat bikes roll over the snow better than regular mountain bikes. The first fat bikes were made by welding the rims of three mountain bike wheels together.
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Originally published on Sun January 20, 2013 9:44 am

The plummeting mercury in Alaska this time of year doesn't keep bikers inside. More and more of them are heading to recreational trails and to the office on "fat bikes." They look like mountain bikes on steroids, with tires wider than most people's arms.

Kevin Breitenbach runs the bike shop at Beaver Sports in Alaska's second-largest city. Aboard a fat bike, he makes his way down a trail that winds through a forest as wet, quarter-sized snowflakes drop from the sky. Visibility is low, and the snow hides the roughest spots on the trail.

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Around the Nation
6:02 am
Sun January 20, 2013

From Chicago to D.C., Hometown Supporters Welcome Obama Back

Credit Sam Sanders / NPR
Chicagoan Janice Trice was an Obama volunteer in 2008 and 2012. Her husband died on Election Day in 2008, before he could celebrate Barack Obama's victory, or even find out that he won. She says this pilgrimage is a way for her to honor his memory.
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Originally published on Sun January 20, 2013 9:23 am

For President Obama's first inauguration, Rep. Danny Davis of Illinois organized a group of more than 700 people — on 10 buses — to make the journey from Chicago to Washington, D.C.

Last time, one of those buses broke down. This time, however, the group decided to take an 18-hour Amtrak ride to see the second presidential inauguration of their hometown hero.

Davis staffer Tumia Romero, who organized the trip, says she did not want to deal with the nightmare of a bus having issues again.

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