GWEN IFILL, PBS: Did you get the sense he was speaking to everybody, including people who didn't vote for him, David?



DAVID BROOKS, NEW YORK TIMES: Yes, but making an argument.



It was about collectivity. There's no question about that. Four years ago, it was about being trans-partisan, about healing divides. He was sort of above the fray. Now he's in the fray. He's picked a team. And his team is his party, his belief system.



And I thought he made the case for a very pragmatic, prudential, incremental, but progressivism, a more forthright case for progressivism than we have heard in some time, even more than Bill Clinton ever made. And so I thought he raised the debate. And it's good to have this debate. I really thought it was one of the best inaugural speeches in the past half-century, because those -- the speeches that work are making an argument for something.



And he made an argument for something. And then, you know, I'm not as liberal as he. So, I thought, oh, here's where I differ. Here's where I don't. So, I thought it was really educational and very provocative. (PBS NewsHour, January 21, 2013)