The Associated Press reports that the Internal Revenue Service says it gave extra scrutiny to organizations with the names "Tea Party" or "Patriot" seeking tax-exempt status.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status.

Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews.

Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington.

Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the IRS. They said the agency asked them an inordinate number of questions to justify their tax-exempt status.

Certain tax-exempt charitable groups can conduct political activities but it cannot be their primary activity.

UPDATE: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement calling for the Obama administration to conduct a review of "these thuggish practices":

“Today’s acknowledgement by the Obama administration that the IRS did in fact target conservative groups in the heat of last year’s national election is not enough. Today, I call on the White House to conduct a transparent, government-wide review aimed at assuring the American people that these thuggish practices are not underway at the IRS or elsewhere in the administration against anyone, regardless of their political views.

Last year, amid reports that the Obama administration was using the levers of executive power to harass conservative political groups in Kentucky and elsewhere, I issued a very public warning to the administration that the targeting of private citizens on the basis of their political views would not be tolerated. Today’s apology by the IRS is proof that those concerns were well founded. But make no mistake, an apology won’t put this issue to rest. Now more than ever we need to send a clear message to the Obama Administration that the First Amendment is non-negotiable, and that apologies after an election year are not an sufficient response to what we now know took place at the IRS. This kind of political thuggery has absolutely no place in our politics.”

The Republican National Committee released an audacious set of recommendations on Monday aimed at revitalizing the party following the drubbing suffered by GOP candidates last November, calling for sweeping changes to the party's infrastructure, outreach and nominating process to contend for the White House in 2016.

The RNC's 100-page report, the "Growth and Opportunity Project," is the election autopsy ordered by Chairman Reince Priebus last fall.

Culled from more than 52,000 contacts with voters, party consultants and elected officials, it calls for drastic changes to almost every major element of the modern Republican Party.

"When Republicans lost in November, it was a wake-up call. And in response I initiated the most public and most comprehensive post-election review in the history of any national party," Priebus said Monday morning at the National Press Club. "As it makes clear, there’s no one reason we lost. Our message was weak; our ground game was insufficient; we weren’t inclusive; we were behind in both data and digital; our primary and debate process needed improvement."

In essence, the report argues for a more data-driven Republican Party in which the RNC assumes increased authority for party-building efforts.

The report calls for increased outreach to women, young voters and minorities — especially Hispanics. The document acknowledges the GOP’s policy on immigration has become a “litmus test” for what will be a key constituency necessary for the party’s success in the next four years and beyond.

"We are not a policy committee, but among the steps Republicans take in the Hispanic community and beyond, we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform," the report says, nodding at other points to the bipartisan reform efforts currently before Congress. "If we do not, our Party’s appeal will continue to shrink to its core constituencies only."

The report also notes a growing generational divide on the issue of gay rights, calling the issue a "gateway" for young voters deciding whether to align with the GOP.

"We can't grow the party by division and subtraction," Priebus said during a question-and-answer session at the press club. "We can only build it by addition and multiplication."

But the report is hardly focused on social issues alone. Its top recurring theme arguably involves building a robust Republican data infrastructure, and applying a commitment to testing and analysis of almost every operation of the RNC.

Priebus is advised to hire a chief technology officer and digital officer by the end of April, and give them wide latitude to inform aspects of the party from fundraising to media strategy and messaging and beyond.

"Those teams will work together to integrate their respective areas throughout the RNC and provide a data-driven focus for the rest of the organization," Priebus said. "And they will be the new center of gravity within the organization."

The GOP's digital revamp — as with most of the other elements of the report — was prompted by the Obama campaign's far more sophisticated operation in 2012.

Handout / Getty Images

Chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, appears on ''Face the Nation'' on March 17, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Many of the reforms proposed by the Growth and Opportunity Project, however, will encounter stiff resistance in corners of the Republican Party and broader conservative movement — because of a deep distrust of the official GOP among the grassroots. 

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin encapsulated the sentiment during her speech on Saturday before the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

"Now is the time to furlough the consultants, and tune out the pollsters, send the focus groups home, and toss the political scripts," she said, "because if we truly know what we believe, we don't need professionals to tell us."

And some of the report's declarations are sure to ruffle feathers on the Right.

The report says bluntly at one point that "third-party groups that promote purity are hurting our electoral prospects," an indirect reference to groups like the Club for Growth, which has promoted challenges to Republicans regarded as more electable who are accused of transgressing against conservative principle.

A spokesman for the Club for Growth had no comment about the report, and Ari Fleischer, one of the leaders of the GOP project, argued that success would involve overcoming resistance from fellow Republicans.

"Successful parties learn and grow, and you do the best learning after you lose," he said at a press conference Monday morning.

The report also calls super PACs a "wild card" that threaten to weaken an eventual nominee due to the onslaught of negative advertising during primaries. (2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney suffered from this type of friendly fire during his slog to the nomination.)

The report calls for broader changes to the Republican primary system, too, especially as it relates to picking a presidential candidate. It calls for prohibiting primary debates before Sept. 1, 2015, and limiting the total number of debates to 10 or 12 -- and possibly docking delegates from candidates who ignore the rules.

The report also calls for holding the Republican National Convention in late June or July, necessitating that the primary process concludes between late April and mid-May. 

To accomplish that, the Growth and Opportunity Project recommends for a major — and likely contentious — overhaul to the primary calendar in which groups of states in a similar region would vote on the same date. The so-called "regional primary system" would follow traditional nominating contests in states like Iowa and New Hampshire, for which there would be an exception. 

Furthermore, the report recommends that Republicans ditch caucuses and conventions — venues in which conservative activists traditionally dominate — in favor of primaries for picking a nominee.

Among the report's assorted other recommendations:

• Establish a new "Growth and Opportunity Inclusion Council" tasked with reaching out to Hispanics, African Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and other minority communities;
• Commit an initial $10 million to improving outreach to minority communities;
• Set up an "RNC Celebrity Task Force of personalities in the entertainment industry" to attract young voters, and encourage Republican leaders to "participate in and actively prepare for interviews" on the Daily Show, the Colbert Report and other media aimed toward younger Americans;
• Place a greater emphasis on early voting in political strategy, messaging and budgeting;
• Invest in full-time field staff in states beginning at a much earlier point in election cycles;
• Convene a quarterly summit of Republican pollsters, ensure an accurate model of likely voters and turnout for polling, and recommend that GOP polls include a 25 percent subsample of respondents who can be reached by cell phone only;
• Explore making more efficient television advertising purchases, including possibly shifting resources away from paid media and toward organizational efforts and alternative methods of voter contact;
• Work with outside conservative groups (to the extent that it's legal) to better define different organizations' responsibilities;
• Encourage a well-funded conservative group (akin to Democrats' group, American Bridge) dedicated to full-time tracking and research of Democratic candidates;
• Expand the RNC's low-dollar fundraising program, and seek more efficient finance staffing;
• "Convince Congress to remove the biennial aggregate contribution limits," or, absent that, seek to increase the contribution limits for federal campaigns;
• Abolish the public financing system for presidential campaigns, including the matching funds program;
• Replace taxpayer funding of national party conventions with a system in which party committees could raise additional funds for the conventions;
• Allow party committees to raise additional funds to support the maintenance of their buildings and facilities.

This story was originally published on Mon Mar 18, 2013 6:58 AM EDT

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney sought to pass the torch of leadership in the GOP to a new generation of conservatives in his first major public speech since losing last year's election. 

Romney, the failed candidate who challenged President Barack Obama in 2012, heralded a handful of Republican governors and his former running mate — Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan — as the next generation of GOP leadership. And he counseled party activists gathered here at the Conservative Political Action Conference to learn from his campaign's missteps. 

"It is up to us to make sure that we learn from my mistakes, and from our mistakes, so that we can win the victories those people and this nation depend upon," Romney told a warmly supportive CPAC crowd.

"It’s fashionable in some circles to be pessimistic about America, about conservative solutions, about the Republican Party," he added. "I utterly reject that pessimism. We may not have carried the day last Nov. 7, but we haven’t lost the country we love, and we haven't lost our way."

The former Massachusetts governor has kept a deliberately low profile following his lopsided loss versus Obama last November.

Following a campaign in which he was caricatured as out of touch — an image reinforced by his comments about "47 percent" of Americans depending upon government — many Republicans have quickly looked past Romney, who seemed at risk of becoming relegated to footnote status within the GOP.

But Romney used his speech to pledge to remain involved in Republican politics. 

"I am sorry that I will not be your president – but I will be your co-worker and I will stand shoulder to shoulder alongside you," he said. "In the end, we will win just as we have won before, and for the same reason: because our cause is just and it is right."

And Romney singled out a handful of Republicans in his speech who could become that next generation of winners.

He hailed South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (who introduced him), and Republican Govs. Rick Snyder (Mich.), Nathan Deal (Ga.), Scott Walker (Wis.), Susana Martinez (N.M.) and Brian Sandoval (Nev.), along with two governors who weren't invited to CPAC because of perceived apostasies against conservatism: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Romney made few references, aside from Ryan, to leaders in Congress. Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Rand Paul, R-Ky., or Ted Cruz, R-Texas, did not earn a shout-out from the former GOP nominee.

CPAC has been an important gathering for Romney in the past. He twice won its influential straw poll, and ended his first bid for the Republican nomination at 2008's gathering. Romney called himself a "severely conservative" governor during his speech at CPAC in 2012, a description which Democrats turned against him in the general election.

Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

Former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney acknowledges supporters as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor, Md., March 15, 2013.

Before this gathering of Republican stalwarts, Romney also weighed in on the looming question before the GOP, about whether it should moderate in some respects, or continue to hew to its conservative ideology. 

He argued that a "conservative vision can attract a majority of Americans and form a governing coalition of renewal and reform."

It's unclear whether or when the public might expect to hear from again from Romney, who recently joined the executive committee of one of his sons' investment companies. But he struck a wistful note upon reflecting about his failed campaign.

"Thank you again for your help and support along our journey," he said. "Ann and I will treasure these memories all the days of our lives."

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:59 PM EDT

Republicans will embark upon a major restructuring of their digital strategy as part of the Republican National Committee's new autopsy of the 2012 elections, NBC News has learned. 

When the RNC on Monday releases the findings of its "Growth and Opportunity Project" — the report ordered by Chairman Reince Priebus on the party's losses in the 2012 campaign — it will emphasize closing the GOP's widely-reported technological gap versus Democrats.

RNC chief of staff Mike Shields, whom Priebus recently hired to help shepherd the RNC's modernization, said he is working on "fundamentally restructuring the way the RNC works so it is centered around the technology department."

Shields said that the release of the RNC's report on Monday "kicks off the 2016 election cycle," pledging an unprecedented commitment to data and technology.

Republicans have repeatedly and openly talked since the election about their data disadvantage versus the Obama campaign. The president's re-election team's sophisticated, cutting-edge digital operation has been robustly chronicled since the election, and credited with helping propel Obama to a second term. 

Shields was reluctant to divulge any specifics of the RNC's new commitment to digital efforts, but said it would be far broader than any simple social media campaign. The RNC also intends to take its new tech operation on the road, to showcase the party's new capabilities for state parties, campaigns and activists.

"By first combining digital, data and tech, you are creating synergy in all of those areas based upon what data you are creating and what it tells you about voters," he said. "But further, by putting that entire department at the center of the organization, you are making your fundraising pitches better and your voter contact much better to ultimately help you win elections."

Republicans' new emphasis was spurred, in part, by Priebus's own meetings with various factions of the party across the country since the election to hear out concerns. To that end, he recently went to Silicon Valley and met with Facebook in order to deal with a recurrent theme he was hearing — that the Republican party was not technically on par with their Democratic counterparts.  

RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski belied that holding a digital team in such high esteem was a rarity in the party, even during Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. 

"The digital campaign was not intergrated into daily decisions," said Kukowski. "But the digital department is not just in some basement anymore."

Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-OH, addresses the media following a Republican Conference meeting on Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. From left are: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-VA, Conference Vice Chairman Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-KS, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, Rep. Susan Brooks, R-IN, Conference Chairman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-WA, and Rep. Tom Price, R-GA.

Published at 4:35 a.m. ET: After their electoral drubbing last November — their second straight in a presidential contest — Republicans have faced a choice. Do they change their policies or their tone?

For now, many top Republicans in Washington seem to have opted for the latter, deciding that a more articulate re-statement of the party's long-held principles will suffice in their effort to attract new voters to the GOP.

"I wouldn't say shift in policy," pollster Jim McLaughlin said of his advice for fellow Republicans. "Republicans have to make adjustments there, but they have to stick to their principles."

McLaughlin's words echo what many Republicans have argued since the election: It's not the party's long-held principles that are the problem, but rather, the way the party's leaders articulate those principles to voters.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., offered a perfect example of current Republican thinking when he delivered a major policy speech that rehashed a number of familiar policies on education, immigration and entitlements under his new "make life work" veneer.

The No. 2 Republican in the House re-framed some of his party's most familiar proposals as an agenda intended to ease the plight of most American families. (The lone new pronouncement was Cantor's endorsement of the thrust of the DREAM Act, a proposal to allow undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children a pathway to citizenship.)

He disputed the notion that his speech was part of a broader effort to soften the GOP's image: "The average American is not thinking about and wondering about where the Republican Party is," Cantor told one questioner.

But the Virginia congressman's speech is representative of an emerging consensus that a more modern restatement of their long-held principles will suffice in seeking to broaden the party's appeal.

And indeed, President Barack Obama's agenda seems poised to stress-test some of the Republican Party's most bedrock policies.

If Republicans can rebuff the president, it could prove the resiliency of their stances. A victory for the president, on the other hand, could tear through the GOP like a buzzsaw. The GOP is arguably facing the most direct challenge in decades to the tenets that have formed the foundation of Republican Party politics for the better part of three decades.

Public opinion shifting
Republicans' decision to hew closely to those long-held principles is not without dissent, however.

"People focus on the 2012 elections, but it's deeper than that," said former Ohio Rep. Steve LaTourette, a Republican who leads the moderate "Main Street Partnership."

"It can't just be tone," LaTourette argued. "Because just changing the tone is going to be like putting a lipstick on a pig — it pretties things up, but doesn't really change the fact that it's a pig."

The next four years — the midterm elections in 2014 and the next presidential contest in 2016 — will offer a major test of which school of thought is right.

Obama's second term agenda seems almost directly intended to challenge the GOP on taxes, entitlements, immigration, social issues and foreign policy.

Terminally low taxes, hawkish foreign policy, largely unfettered gun rights and opposition to abortion and gay rights have defined the GOP since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. And as recently as 2004, President George W. Bush's re-election seemed to signify a sweeping affirmation of these central principles.

But Obama already won new revenue during the first installment of the "fiscal cliff" fight, and his forthcoming budget is almost sure to seek more tax increases. The president is demanding an immigration bill and the first major gun law since the 1990s. Obama has also consistently advocated for new gay rights, and public opinion has followed (however slowly). And last month's NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that a majority of Americans support abortion rights — an issue which Democrats used against Republicans to great effect during the election — for the first time in history.

On an even more foundational issue, last November's exit polls revealed a change in tide against Republicans' opposition to new taxes under any circumstances. Almost half of voters — and 70 percent of independents — agreed that income taxes should increase, at a bare minimum, for households earning more than $250,000 per year.

For Republicans, the road map back to victory involves speaking less stridently about some of these issues, and emphasizing certain elements of the GOP platform over others. Virtually all Republicans recoil at the comments last fall about "legitimate rape" by Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, but no mainstream GOP leader has suggested that the party jettison its longstanding opposition to abortion rights. The new strategy might involve sidestepping conversations altogether about abortions in the instances of rape, instead emphasizing Republican policies that might support women's economic mobility.

And already, a new effort led by former Bush political guru Karl Rove has vowed to combat candidates like Akin in primaries and help to nominate more electable Republican candidates. (A separate effort spearheaded by another onetime Bush adviser, Ed Gilliespie, and two Hispanic GOP governors, Suzana Martinez of New Mexico and Brian Sandoval of Nevada, will look to recruit more minority Republican candidates.)

LaTourette, the former congressman, suggested the answer might be simpler. The GOP, he said, is should just get things — something, anything — done.

"There needs to be some sort of reasonable approach to demonstrate that we're all in this together," he said, "a willingness to do the doable and get things done."

Related:

NBC/WSJ poll: Majority, for first time, want abortion to be legal

Rape remarks sink two Republican Senate hopefuls

Social conservatives say they deserve seat at table in retooled GOP

During the presidential campaign last fall, Univision asked President Obama about his biggest failure in his four years in office.

His answer: passing comprehensive immigration reform.

But Obama, at the forum sponsored by the Spanish-language network in September, continued:

"I think that I’ve learned some lessons over the last four years, and the most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside. That’s how I got elected, and that’s how the big accomplishments like health care got done."

Mitt Romney and the Republican Party pounced on those comments. "The president today threw in the white flag of surrender again,” Romney argued. “He said he can’t change Washington from inside; he can only change it from outside. Well, we’re going to give him that chance in November. He’s going outside!”

Yet campaign rhetoric aside, Obama was admitting a simple truth about American politics at that Univision forum: The power to change policy comes from public opinion. And it also comes from the ballot box.

In other words, elections have consequences -- especially after more than 70 percent of Latinos backed Obama in the 2012 presidential election, up from 67 percent in 2008.

That explains why Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- who once championed comprehensive immigration reform but has opposed it ever since the '08 election -- is back on board.

"Elections, elections. The Republican Party is losing the support of our Hispanic citizens," McCain said at a news conference yesterday announcing his support of bipartisan principles to reform the nation's immigration system.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) put it another way. "The politics on this issue have been turned upside down," he said. "There is more political risk in opposing immigration reform rather than supporting it."

None of this is to say that immigration reform's passage through Congress is a sure thing. Already, opponents are asking that the Senate slow down consideration of any legislation. "No secret accord with profound consequences for this nation’s future can be rushed through. That means a full committee process and debate and amendments on the floor of the Senate," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said in a statement yesterday.

But it does point to how outside forces -- and elections -- can change politics, at least for a while, on issues like immigration and taxes.

Republicans are dug in as ever against raising new taxes, and their budgetary standard-bearer, Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, said Sunday that the Republican House of Representatives has already moved past the question of new revenues. 

Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and former GOP vice presidential nominee, laid out the contours of what will almost certainly be a bruising springtime debate on taxes and spending — an outgrowth of the unresolved consequences of the "fiscal cliff."

And as the GOP-held House and the Democratic-controlled Senate prepare dueling budget proposals, Ryan argued that the president was unserious about tackling the mounting national debt. 

"The president got his additional revenues. So that's behind us," Ryan said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in his first live interview since the presidential election, when Ryan and presidential candidate Mitt Romney lost decisively to President Barack Obama. 

During the campaign, Romney and Ryan talked forcefully about reforming taxes and raising revenues by closing loopholes and deductions that favor the wealthy. While Democrats won higher taxes on household income over $450,000 as part of the New Year's deal to stave off the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts in the fiscal cliff, Democrats now say they'll produce a budget asking for even more revenue, possibly through similar tax reforms.

"Are we for raising revenues? No we're not," Ryan said. "If you keep raising revenues, you're not going to get decent tax reform."

The Wisconsin congressman's comments portend a debate over taxes and spending in Washington featuring parties as far apart as ever. Republicans this week passed legislation to suspend the debt limit — and, with it, the specter of default — until May. But Congress must still reckon with the need to continue funding the government, and address the automatic and drastic spending cuts (known as the "sequester") that were delayed only for two months as part of the fiscal cliff.

"I think the sequester's going to happen," Ryan said, blaming Democrats for offering no palatable substitute for those cuts. 

And Ryan said that Republicans were "not interested" in a government shutdown, the consequence for which some GOP lawmakers have openly called should Obama and lawmakers fail to reach an agreement to fund the government.

But those looming questions — which are tied directly into the budgets that the House and Senate will debate this spring — reflect how Washington remained as vexed as ever by fiscal issues. 

And the rhetoric is hot as ever, too.

"I don't think that the president actually thinks we have a fiscal crisis," Ryan said. 

With tax and spending matters set to dominate much of lawmakers' energy for the first half of this year, it could make other elements of Obama's agenda — like immigration reform and curbing gun violence — more politically difficult. 

Ryan, who has praised a bipartisan set of immigration reforms offered by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, R, said he was cautiously optimistic about the prospects for immigration reform this year. But Ryan said that Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike would closely watch Obama's speech on Tuesday in Nevada on that topic.

And of the president's gun control measures, Ryan suggested openness to embracing some measures — like requiring universal background checks on gun sales — while expressing skittishness toward other elements of the plan, like the ban on assault weapons.

As Ryan himself navigates these very thorny issues for the next four years, his every action will be refracted through the prism of 2016 presidential politics. After having emerged as something of a GOP rock star as Romney's running mate last fall, many Republicans hope that the Wisconsin congressman might seek the presidency himself in four years, joining a tentative field of Republican contenders for the nomination that is full of proverbial heavyweights.

Ryan offered a familiar answer about his own potential ambitions, saying he doesn't think about running, and that he was currently focused on his job serving his constituents. 

"I think it's just premature. I've got an important job to do," he said. "I'll decide later about that."

Mark Wilson / Getty Images

President Barack Obama is sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as First lady Michelle Obama and daughters, Sasha Obama and Malia Obama look on during the public ceremonial inauguration on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013.

Updated 4:33 p.m. — President Barack Obama issued a call to unity in his second inaugural address, urging the nation to move past the divisions that marked the last four years in politics and complete the work of living up to America's founding principles.

The president, in a speech that blended together post-partisan rhetoric and policy declarations, highlighted the progress made during his first term to end foreign wars and turn around the economy.

But Obama said that there was much unfinished work ahead, and he used Monday's speech to urge political leaders to finally rise above bitter squabbling — a recurring theme of his first term, and a mark of how difficult it has been for Obama to live up to his 2008 vow to change Washington's business as usual.

"Our journey is not complete," Obama said during one refrain in his speech.

Related: The full text of President Barack Obama's inaugural address

"We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate," Obama said. "We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect.  We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial, and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years, and forty years, and four hundred years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall."

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts and Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, respectively, shortly before noon; Monday's oath of office was ceremonial, following their formal, constitutionally-prescribed swearing-in on Sunday.

Monday's ceremonies coincided with the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. Obama nodded to the slain civil rights leader during his speech, and the nation's first African-American president used one of King's Bibles during today's inauguration.

The president's speech, though, strode between acknowledging the accomplishments of his first term and the new priorities for his second. The president begins his new term this week intent upon pursuing an ambitious agenda following his decisive re-election victory last November over Republican opponent Mitt Romney.

Related: First Thoughts: Obama's second term begins

Rebuilding the economy, strengthening entitlement programs for future generations and addressing the threat of climate change were among the initiatives upon which the president touched during his speech. Obama nodded toward other priorities, that were set to define his next four years in office: equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans, immigration reform that offers undocumented residents a pathway to citizenship and new rules to curb gun violence.

But as political leaders from both parties looked on from the inaugural platform, Obama avoided much of the hard-charging rhetoric of last year's campaign.

Romney, the erstwhile GOP nominee, spent Inauguration Day at his home in La Jolla, Calif., and a former aide told NBC News it was unlikely that the former Massachusetts governor would watch today's festivities.

Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, Romney's running mate last fall, said today was not a day to emphasize partisan divisions.

"But today, we put those disagreements aside," Ryan said in a statement. "Today, we remember what we share in common."

To be sure, a variety of bruising political battles between Obama and Congress — in particular, a House of Representatives controlled by Republicans — loomed on the horizon. On Wednesday, Republicans said, they would vote on a measure to extend the nation's debt limit by a few months.

Earlier in the day, Obama and the first family attended a service at St. John's Episcopal Church — the "Church of the Presidents," as it is sometimes known — just two blocks from the White House.

There, Dr. Luis Leon, the rector of the church, led a series of "prayers for the nation," Washington Cardinal Donald Weurl led a Gospel reading, and an Alexandria, Va., rabbi offered a final blessing. Biden and his wife also attended the service.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter were among the dignitaries in attendance during the oath-of-office ceremonies during late Monday morning. Celebrities including musician Jay-Z and actress Eva Longoria joined government officials on the inaugural platform, and attendees were treated to performances by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and James Taylor.

Obama retreated to a traditional luncheon on Capitol Hill following the inaugural ceremonies before participating in the parade down Washington's Pennsylvania Avenue.

"I recognize that democracy is not always easy, and I recognize there are profound differences in this room," Obama said in a toast before a bipartisan group of lawmakers, "but I just want to say thank you for your service and I want to thank your families for their service, because regardless of our political persuasions and perspectives, I know that all of us serve because we believe that we can make America for future generations."

Afterward, the president and first lady entered the motorcade from the Capitol and back to the White House, leaving the presidential motorcade at moments to walk for a portion of the trip.

The president and first lady will make their way to glitzy, black-tie inaugural balls later this evening before wrapping the whirlwind day of festivities.

NBC's Peter Alexander contributed to this report.

Drunken rants, flamethrowers, dead canaries and newfangled pants.

No, that's not a summary of deleted scenes from "The Hangover."  It's a list of some of the more interesting highlights from our nation's rich history of past presidential inaugurations.

Besides the pomp and circumstance, the inauguration -- with its associated balls and parades -- is a logistical puzzle, complete with all the potential chaos that comes with organizing a heavily attended event in wintertime, in a swamp of an East Coast city.

Recommended - Inauguration playlist: Jam to Beyonce, Kelly Clarkson and more

From mishaps to glory, here are a few pieces of inaugural trivia you can use to impress your friends and neighbors.

** As vice president, an ill Andrew Johnson became so intoxicated on the day of Lincoln's inauguration that he gave a rambling speech about himself before becoming too confused to perform his duty swearing in the new senators. "The inauguration went off very well except that the Vice President Elect was too drunk to perform his duties & disgraced himself and the Senate by making a drunken foolish speech," wrote Sen. Zachariah Chandler of Michigan at the time.

Slideshow: Inaugural history: From Lincoln to Obama

Abraham Lincoln swore the oath in front of an incomplete Capitol dome. Lyndon B. Johnson became president on Air Force One next to a dazed Jacqueline Kennedy. A collection of photographs from past presidential inaugurations.

Launch slideshow

** Good trivia: First president of the United States who was not born a British subject? Martin Van Buren, inaugurated 1837.

** Even better trivia: First president to wear long trousers instead of knee breeches? John Quincy Adams, 1825.

** At the very first inauguration in 1789, the Bible used by President George Washington was hastily opened to Genesis 49:13, which reads, "Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon."

** In 2009, President Barack Obama used the Lincoln Bible, used by Abraham Lincoln at his presidential inauguration. The book, published in 1853, has 1,280 pages.

** For John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, a morning snow left an accumulation of about eight inches. Army flame throwers were used to clear it from Pennsylvania Avenue.

** The estimated temperature at Ronald Reagan's first inaugural was a balmy 55 degrees Fahrenheit. At his second, it was a frigid seven -- the coldest inauguration on record -- and the ceremony had to be held inside.

** At another chilly celebration, in 1873, guests at President Ulysses S. Grant's ball had to dance in their coats because the temporary structure built for the occasion was so frigid. Champagne became Slurpee-like in consistency, and the flock of canaries brought in for guests' enjoyment ended up freezing to death.

** After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson was sworn in at his residence at the Kirkwood House on Pennsylvania Avenue. The site is now a high-rise.

** After Kennedy was assassinated, Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office on Air Force One. It was the first time the presidential or vice presidential oath of office was administered by a woman, U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes.

Related: Watching the presidential inauguration with NBC News

** The first televised inaugural ceremony was Harry Truman's in 1949. The first broadcast nationally by radio was Calvin Coolidge's in 1925. The first known photographs from an inauguration were in 1857 at the ceremony for James Buchanan.

** The tradition of inaugural balls is traced to the first one thrown for James and Dolley Madison. Tickets to the 1809 gala, held at Long's Hotel, were $4 apiece. 

** A grand ball for James Buchanan in 1857 included 400 gallons of oysters, 75 hams and $3,000 worth of wine. (That's more than $70,000 in today's money.) 

Sources: Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Senate Historical Office.

All inaugural addresses are not created equal, but through the course of the nation’s history, presidents have used the occasion to sketch their visions on topics as old as the republic itself – unity, sacrifice and the proper role of government.

By the time Barack Obama delivered his first inaugural address on Jan. 20, 2009, he had already become famous as an orator with his smashing debut at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and his Iowa caucus victory speech in January 2008.

“There is not a liberal America and conservative America – there is the United States of America,” he declared in the 2004 speech.

A star was born that night and his exhilarating speech on the night he won the Iowa caucuses in 2008 proved to his fans that his rhetorical skill could carry him to the presidency.

He claimed victory in Iowa over those who "said this country was too divided, too disillusioned, to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do.”

By the time Obama stood up to take his oath of office at the Capitol, the improbable had become reality. The “cynics” had long since been vanquished.

Like other presidents in their inaugural addresses, Obama in 2009 faced the familiar tasks of sounding a call for national renewal and proclaiming a faith in ordinary Americans.

As Bill Clinton had said in his first inaugural in 1993, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.” Many inaugural speeches – from Thomas Jefferson’s in 1801 to Ronald Reagan’s in 1981 to Obama’s in 2009 -- are elaborations of the upbeat theme that Clinton sounded in 1993.

Since an inauguration – especially a first one – is a fresh start, the newly sworn-in president naturally will proclaim that voters have brought about long-overdue change. “You have changed the face of Congress, the presidency and the political process itself.” That wasn’t Obama speaking in 2009; it was Bill Clinton in his 1993 inaugural address.

Moral improvement
Obama’s first inaugural seems at certain points remarkably personal. In it he did not mention his mother, whom he had often evoked in his 2008 campaign speeches, but he did twice mention his father – whom he never saw after he was 10 years old.

His own life story and the nation’s history were uniquely intertwined, Obama implied, alluding at one point to all the people around the globe watching him taking the oath, including the people in “the small village where my father was born” in Kenya.

He said America’s ability to reform itself was “why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.”

Obama offered a strikingly optimistic view of every nation’s ability to become more like America at its best: capable of moral improvement, tolerant, and committed to unifying and noble ideals, without regard to a person’s ethnicity or skin color.

“Because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself,” he said.

His defeat of John McCain in the November election and of Hillary Clinton and other rivals in the Democratic primaries was a victory of ideals: “We have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.”

Like Clinton in 1993, Obama said that voters had changed the American political system itself: “On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.”

As for just one of the specific promises Obama made in that speech: “We will wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost.”

He did sign into law a landmark health care overhaul but whether its provisions will lower the cost of medical care has yet to be determined.

Role of government
Obama used his inaugural to join the long-running debate with small government conservatives – a debate that Clinton had joined in his second inaugural address in 1997.

Slideshow: Inaugural history: From Lincoln to Obama

Abraham Lincoln swore the oath in front of an incomplete Capitol dome. Lyndon B. Johnson became president on Air Force One next to a dazed Jacqueline Kennedy. A collection of photographs from past presidential inaugurations.

Launch slideshow

Reagan had said in 1981, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”

In his 1997 inaugural, Clinton rebutted Reagan, or at least tried to redefine the debate: “We have resolved for our time a great debate over the role of government. Today we can declare: government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. We – the American people – we are the solution.”

Obama, once again assailing unnamed “cynics” as he did in his Iowa speech, said in his inaugural address that his election allowed Americans to move beyond old arguments about the size of the federal government.

“What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them; that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply,” he declared. “The question we ask today is not whether our Government is too big or too small, but whether it works; whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”

So far, that last promise has not yet been kept: Obama has significantly expanded the federal role in health care but hasn’t yet ended any major federal program.

What makes an inaugural speech one for the history books is a president’s eloquence at a moment of national crisis. Very few inaugural addresses are, like Lincoln’s immortal and remarkably short (701 words) second inaugural, carved in their entirety in granite on the National Mall or anywhere else, but on some rare occasions a president’s words do seem to define an era.

Franklin Roosevelt did that in 1933, at the depth of the gravest economic crisis of modern times, attacking what he called “the unscrupulous money changers” whose practices “stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.”

He said, “The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization.”

That scalding attack on Wall Street is less well remembered today than FDR’s serene confidence in a dark hour: “This great nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

Related stories: 
Different attitude greeting Obama's upcoming inaugural
Cheat Sheet: Watching the presidential inauguration with NBC News
Time is not on the side of second-term presidents
Public lowers expectations heading into Obama's 2nd term

A Georgia Republican congressman said that former Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin, R, was "partly right" in asserting that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely become pregnant.

Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Ga., a former obstetrician-gynecologist, said at a town hall meeting that Akin was “partly right” in his controversial suggestion, which was widely cited as a factor in his loss to Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, D, this past November.

Gingrey said, according to the Marietta Daily Journal:

“And in Missouri, Todd Akin … was asked by a local news source about rape and he said, ‘Look, in a legitimate rape situation’ — and what he meant by legitimate rape was just look, someone can say I was raped: a scared-to-death 15-year-old that becomes impregnated by her boyfriend and then has to tell her parents, that’s pretty tough and might on some occasion say, ‘Hey, I was raped.’ That’s what he meant when he said legitimate rape versus non-legitimate rape. I don’t find anything so horrible about that. But then he went on and said that in a situation of rape, of a legitimate rape, a woman’s body has a way of shutting down so the pregnancy would not occur. He’s partly right on that.”

[...]

“And I’ve delivered lots of babies, and I know about these things. It is true. We tell infertile couples all the time that are having trouble conceiving because of the woman not ovulating, ‘Just relax. Drink a glass of wine. And don’t be so tense and uptight because all that adrenaline can cause you not to ovulate.’ So he was partially right wasn’t he? But the fact that a woman may have already ovulated 12 hours before she is raped, you’re not going to prevent a pregnancy there by a woman’s body shutting anything down because the horse has already left the barn, so to speak. And yet the media took that and tore it apart.”

Akin originally told KTVI-TV in August: “First of all, from what I understand from doctors, [pregnancy from rape] is really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Republicans quickly distanced themselves from Akin, urging him to end his bid for Senate to allow another GOP candidate to step forward. Mitt Romney, then the party’s presidential nominee, publicly said that Akin should end his campaign.

However, Akin, a congressman, resisted the calls for him to drop out, giving Democrats fodder to paint Republicans as out-of-touch with women voters. Another GOP Senate candidate, Indiana’s Richard Mourdock, also gave fodder to Democrats when he suggested that pregnancies by rape were “something God intended.” (Mourdock, like Akin, lost a Senate race on which Republicans had been counting to win.)

Gingrey addressed the cost of those controversies before making his own assessment of the science behind Akin’s remarks:

“Part of the reason the Dems still control the Senate is because of comments made in Missouri by Todd Akin and Indiana by Mourdock were considered a little bit over the top ... Mourdock basically said ‘Look, if there is conception in the aftermath of a rape, that’s still a child, and it’s a child of God, essentially.’ Now, in Indiana, that cost him the election.”

From "47 percent" to "oops" to "you didn't build that," the 2012 campaign was full of memorable moments that arguably changed the trajectory and rhetoric of the presidential race, influencing conversations about the role of government, the essentials of leadership, and the direction of the country.

Aaaaaand then there was all the other stuff.

The first campaign in which ideological scuffles were waged on Twitter, the 2012 race was noteworthy for its moments of pure silliness, when there was little observers could do except use their 140-character allotments for snarky pronouncements like "#headdesk."

So, with apologies to the Happy Days episode that birthed the phrase "to jump the shark," here's our list of the Top 10 "shark-jumping" political moments of 2012:

10. The Drudge Report floats Petraeus for VP.  Despite overwhelming evidence -- even more overwhelming in retrospect -- that the now-resigned CIA director was hardly a slam-dunk to be on the GOP ticket, reporters scurried frantically to shoot down a Drudge Report siren floating Gen. David Petraeus for Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick. The news was sourced to "a top fundraiser" who heard it "whispered" by Barack Obama. The Romney-aligned conservative news hub suggested the once-revered general (who resigned after the election in the wake of revelations of an extra-marital affair) after it plugged an exclusive scoop on the implausible pick of Condi Rice for the job.

9. Newt Gingrich is bitten by a penguin at the zoo. While technically still a presidential candidate -- but long after the sheen of his surprise January victory in the South Carolina GOP primary had faded -- it wasn't unusual to hear tales of Newt Gingrich's passion for zoology during the spring of 2012. An April incident at the San Diego Zoo offered LOL-worthy headlines when the former speaker was nipped on the finger by a Magellanic penguin. Hounded for confirmation, Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond dutifully vowed that the Band-Aid-prompting injury would not end the candidate's love of animals, saying "Newt is a zoo fan. He will be back."

8. Everyone meta-argues about Big Bird. Asked during the first presidential debate for areas where he would cut federal spending, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney pointed to the (relatively minuscule) funds received by PBS, even while asserting earnestly that "I like Big Bird." After a particularly lackluster debate performance by President Obama, the statement offered Romney foes a welcome peg for attacks, including a parody ad in which the goofy avian puppet was derided as a "big, yellow, a menace to our economy." Republicans, in turn ridiculed the Obama campaign's fixation with the Sesame Street protagonist as frivolous, and an exasperated PBS requested that the ad be taken down.

7. A stop at Chick-Fil-A becomes a political act. Liberal lovers of waffle fries faced a difficult choice this summer when Chick-Fil-A president Dan Cathy voiced criticism of same-sex marriage. While Mitt Romney didn't bite, other Republican politicians leveraged the story, flocking to the fast-food joint to show their support for Cathy's socially conservative views. Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and then-VP hopeful Tim Pawlenty all publicly backed the franchise that launched the "Eat Mor Chikin" campaign, while some Democratic pols threatened to keep new stores from opening and pilloried the restaurant with labels like "hate chicken." The chain later - ahem -- "waffled" on its stance, agreeing to stop funding groups that fight same-sex marriage.

6. Romney not-really-jokingly laments not being Latino. The "47 percent" remarks were the enduring headline out of Mitt Romney's leaked fundraiser remarks, but the nominee also raised some eyebrows when he joked to attendees that he would have been much more likely to win the presidency if his father had been Mexican. "He was born in Mexico… and had he been born of, uh, Mexican parents, I’d have a better shot at winning this," Romney said to reported crickets from the audience of donor heavyweights. "But he was unfortunately born to Americans living in Mexico. He lived there for a number of years. I mean, I say that jokingly, but it would be helpful to be Latino.” Si se puede!

5. The Trump "October surprise." Remember this? Donald Trump sent the Twitter machine into a frenzy after he promised a "revelation" that would derail the president's re-election efforts. The rumor mill indicated that the bombshell could be some kind of divorce records from Obama's past, a claim which turned out to be far more potentially interesting than Trump's actual revelation -- which was to offer $5 million to the charity of Obama's choice in exchange for the president's college and passport records. The news dud served to remind voters of Romney's tortured embrace of the coiffed billionaire in a February endorsement, which Romney accepted by deadpanning, "There are some things you can't imagine ever happening in your life. This is one of them."

4. Spandexed Rick Perry tweets he's staying in 2012 race. The morning after the Iowa caucuses, political reporters and Perry staff were making arrangements to attend the Texas governor's inevitable dropout press conference when a tweet from the governor's official account pictured Perry in running attire giving a thumbs up -- with the text "Here we come South Carolina!!!" Some close aides initially believed the vow to stay in the race was a hoax. Frazzled reporters chased the candidate to a hotel hallway where they got their first in-person confirmation of the news from Perry's wife Anita, in the form of her declaration that "I LOVE grits!"

3. Joe Biden poses with biker chick. Relentlessly parodied as a dopey muscle-car enthusiast by joke newspaper The Onion, Vice President Joe Biden finally appeared to be merging with his own caricature when he tried to make friends with a trio of bikers at an Ohio diner. The result: an AP photo of Biden nuzzling a grinning female rider as two male companions looked on with impossible-to-describe-in-print facial expressions of annoyance, disbelief and wonderment. (It didn't help that the photo was published within hours of a picture of a Barack Obama being aerially bear-hugged by a large Florida admirer.)

2. Eastwooding. After his appearance in a stark, full page pro-Chrysler ad dubbed "Halftime in America," some Republicans accused Clint Eastwood of being an Obama backer. That presumably gave the gravelly-voiced star's endorsement of Mitt Romney even more heft going in to the Republican National Convention, when no organizers questioned the famous "Dirty Harry" actor as to exactly what he might say on stage. Republicans, along with a primetime audience of millions, looked on with (at best) bewildered amusement and (at worst) horror as Eastwood wandered around the stage spouting insults at an empty chair meant to symbolize the president. Eastwood later admitted -- in the biggest scoop to date for his hometown paper The Carmel Pine Cone -- that he came up with the idea to malign available furniture while in the green room before the speech. "[The Romney team] vets most of the people, but I told them, ‘You can’t do that with me, because I don’t know what I’m going to say,’” Eastwood recalled to the Pine Cone.

1. The "war on women." Little did Hilary Rosen know when she dinged Ann Romney's career choices on CNN that she was touching off a seven-month battle that would be dubbed by both sides as a partisan "war on women." “His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” said Rosen, a political consultant who advises the Democratic National Committee, launching a rhetorical spitball/Twitter war that continued in various incarnations until  Election Day. Obama campaign aides scrambled to condemn the remark as Ann Romney shot back that she “made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work."

That opening volley continued through the end of the campaign, with Republicans and Democrats each painting the other group as baby-hating suffrage opponents eager to confine the brightest of women to lady-prisons of convenient stereotypes.

Both sides pointed to issues ranging from the arguably legitimate (economic policies affecting families, contraceptive policies) to the unrepeatable (Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a "slut")  to the absurd (demanding that the other side disown the endorsement of a musical artist with unpleasant lyrics about women.)

The silliness may have been best encapsulated by Reince Priebus, who described the back-and-forth thusly: "If the Democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and every mainstream media outlet talked about the fact that Republicans have a war on caterpillars, then we'd have problems with caterpillars."

For which he had to apologize.