Obama remembered to give a shout out to "non-believers." That's unique i think.

[John Q. Citizen]

[dhill926]

1. yes....and thank you Mr. President....

[kwolf68]

2. I applaud him for that

Because many Americans are non believers, pay taxes, work hard, are honest, basically just as good as anyone who believes.

[liberalmuse]

3. I whooped at that.

That was cool!

[jobycom]

4. Made me smile. Did you also notice he said "Forebearers," not "Forefathers?"

[John Q. Citizen]

7. I didn't until you mentioned it. but your are right.

[beac]

5. I appreciated that.

You don't have to believe you are going somewhere when you die to be a good person here on Earth. I'm glad my new President knows that. :)

[AndrewP]

13. Exactly. Thank you Mr. President

[snooper2]

6. I guess we will take our crumb :)

Thank you President Obama!

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Now all we need is for Obama to get an agnostic or atheist to give the mumbo jumbo before lunch,

et al.

[Forkboy]

9. It would be shorter at least. "Let's eat" would suffice.

:)

[PurityOfEssence]

16. I'd say a thanks to the cooking and serving staff might be in order...

...and maybe a word or two for the people who sprung for it.

Whatever. Some ceremonial deism, irritating though it is, is just natural for believers; my family often feels chagrined after the fact for making allusions about God in front of our kids, but they don't mean anything by it.

One thing irritating about religion in general is how everything is all about what doesn't exist, whereas so much that does just gets ignored. Thank the hard working PEOPLE who actually provided the feast; we KNOW that they actually exist and did something.

What the hell; it's all larded with cultural traditions and whiffs of this and that.

The really sad thing is that the crowds have been kept at bay. It's a reminder of the state of the world today, because this is a moment when people really want to be there, yet watching the parade start, the image is like a low-budget production with no extras. There's something terribly sterile about all that, and that's just not representative of the mood of this campaign or this moment.

CNN's camera work is pretty damned good, though.

[eridani]

20. And plants and animals that gave up their lives--

--so we could feed our non-photosynthetic faces.

[John Q. Citizen]

23. plus expound on the benfits of the eat locally movement in terms of local community

development in a green context.

[BklynChick]

10. he usually does, but it was nice to hear with the whole world listening.

[John Q. Citizen]

14. I don't remember ever hearing the Pres mention non-believers as on the same status plain

as believers.

I've heard about godless commies, but never about non-believers as productive citizens.

[chill_wind]

17. It is good. Here's another such instance, JQC.

though nothing on the audience scale of today's.

.. Sept 2007

"Obama consistently includes nonbelievers in discussion of faith and politics."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x3519734

[Onlooker]

11. That was great

I wonder if it was a first.

[anonymous171]

12. Yep. Bush didn't even consider them American citizens

[leftstreet]

15. Kudos for that

I don't think I've ever heard a Prez do that.

[reggie the dog]

18. I don't remember being mentioned by any prior president

I thought it was very cool of him.

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. Yes. And welcome, too, in that he's everyone's President..

[Grateful for Hope]

21. Unique, but not surprising, IMO.

I think he is a man of his word, and, his "big tent" is exactly that.

He more than warmed my heart today. His speech was amazing.

[Politicub]

22. Very unique. I loved it.

He's very inclusive.