Obama’s ceremonial swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol was filled with traditional pomp and pageantry, but it was a scaled-back inauguration compared to the historic start of his presidency in 2009 when he swept into office on a mantle of hope and change as America’s first black president

With second-term expectations tempered by lingering economic weakness and the political realities of a divided Washington, Obama acknowledged the difficult road ahead even as he sought to build momentum from his decisive November re-election victory.

“We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate,” Obama said as he stood in the wintry cold atop a giant makeshift platform on the Capitol steps overlooking the National Mall.

Looking out on a sea of flags, he spoke to a crowd of up to 700,000 people, less than half the record 1.8 million who assembled four years ago.

Obama arrived at his second inauguration on solid footing, with his poll numbers up, Republicans on the defensive and his first-term record boasting accomplishments such as a U.S. healthcare overhaul, ending the war in Iraq and the killing of Osama bin Laden.

But battles are looming over budgets, gun control and immigration, with Republicans ready to oppose him at almost every turn and Obama still seemingly at a loss over how to engage them in deal-making.

SECOND TIME TAKING OATH

When Obama raised his right hand and was sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, it was his second time taking the oath in 24 hours – but this time with tens of millions of people watching on television.

The president beamed as chants of “Obama, Obama!” rang out from the crowd.

Obama had a formal swearing-in on Sunday at the White House because of a constitutional requirement that the president take the oath on January 20. Rather than stage the full inauguration on a Sunday, the main public events were put off until Monday.

A second inauguration marked another milestone of political passage for Obama, the Hawaiian-born son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas. An electrifying speech at the 2004 Democratic convention as a little-known Illinois state legislator lifted him to the national stage, putting him on a rapid trajectory to the U.S. Senate and a few years later the White House.

Obama, 51, his hair visibly grayed over the past four years, sought to reassure Americans at the mid-point of his presidency and encourage them to help him take care of unfinished business. His wide-ranging speech touched on a variety of issues, including climate change and Middle East democracy uprisings.

Obama, who won a second term by defeating Republican Mitt Romney after a bitter campaign, opened round two facing many of the same problems that dogged his first term: persistently high unemployment, crushing government debt and a deep partisan divide. The war in Afghanistan, which Obama is winding down, has dragged on for over a decade.

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“I already did my coming out about a thousand years ago in the stone age,” Foster said. “If you had been a public figure from the time that you were a toddler, you might value privacy.”

The overall message was unclear. Was she officially coming out? Did she announce her retirement from acting and directing? What does she have against Honey Boo Boo? It didn’t help matters that the audio cut out at a crucial moment as she discussed “a big coming out speech.” So what did the six-and-a-half-minute ramble actually mean?

We set out to decode it:

“I guess I have a sudden urge to say something that I’ve never really been able to air in public. So, a declaration that I’m a little nervous about but maybe not quite as nervous as my publicist right now, huh Jennifer? But I’m just going to put it out there, right? Loud and proud, right? So I’m going to need your support on this. I am single. Yes I am, I am single. No, I’m kidding, but I’m not really kidding.”

TRANSLATION: I recognize your hunger for a big confessional moment from me, and for that I am going to mess with you.

“Now I’m told, apparently that every celebrity is expected to honor the details of their private life with a press conference, a fragrance and a prime-time reality show. You know, you guys might be surprised, but I am not Honey Boo Boo Child. No, I’m sorry, that’s just not me. It never was and it never will be.”

TRANSLATION: I am going to equate being upfront about your sexuality with the more tasteless and tacky aspects of our reality TV culture, no matter how damaging it may be for young gays and lesbians to see a successful public figure refuse to say the word “lesbian.”

“There is no way I could ever stand here without acknowledging one of the deepest loves of my life, my heroic co-parent, my ex-partner in love but righteous soul sister in life, my confessor, ski buddy, consigliere, most beloved BFF of 20 years, Cydney Bernard. Thank you, Cyd. I am so proud of our modern family.”

TRANSLATION: I was in a long-term relationship with a woman, and we have two children together. This is not necessarily news, but it’s the first time I’ve acknowledged her in front of television cameras.

“This feels like the end of one era and the beginning of something else. Scary and exciting and now what? Well, I may never be up on this stage again, on any stage for that matter.”

TRANSLATION: It’s difficult not feel you’re in some moment of transition when an organization gives you a lifetime achievement award, even if you’re only 50 years old.

So in summation: Jodie Foster doesn’t need to come out of the closet because she already is out of the closet even if she never officially came out of the closet. And she’s not retiring from Hollywood, despite how the end of her speech was initially interpreted. “I could never stop acting,” Foster told reporters backstage. “You’d have to drag me behind a team of horses. I’d like to be directing tomorrow.”

But she is definitely single, we know that much.

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It was a sharp contrast to the speech Obama delivered four years ago in Denver, when he emerged as a transformative candidate, the first African-American to win the presidential nomination of a major party.

Obama will face Republican Mitt Romney in the November 6 election, but he also will confront the lingering ghosts of his history-making 2008 bid.

Campaigning on a theme of hope and change then, Obama’s re-election prospects now turn on the prosaic stream of data that, day by day, paint a portrait of an economy that is still struggling to emerge from the deepest recession since the 1930s.

“I won’t pretend the path I’m offering is quick or easy,” Obama said on Thursday. “It will take more than a few years for us to solve challenges that have built up over decades.”

Although Obama has won significant victories in office, from a dramatic expansion of health coverage to the end of the Iraq war, voters remain preoccupied with the sluggish economy. Obama’s own aides have struggled to make the case that voters are better off now than they were four years ago, and the president could be hurt by a gap between expectations and reality.

“He’s been talking for four years in big ways about the future, and at some point you deplete some of that capital,” said Carleton College professor Steven Schier.

Romney is hoping to win over disillusioned Obama supporters who still hold a favorable view of the president even as they give the economy low marks.

Obama, by contrast, seemed to be aiming squarely at core supporters in a speech that thrilled the 20,000 Democratic stalwarts in Charlotte.

He celebrated signature accomplishments such as the auto-industry bailout and the death of Osama bin Laden, and delivered red-meat attacks on Romney that analysts said would go a long way toward firing up those who backed him four years ago.

“The main thing he did was to inspire the Democratic base to say ‘we need to have people out mobilized.’ They’re in trouble if they don’t,” said Stanford University professor Morris Fiorina.

Obama has offered few new policies since his $450 billion jobs package was rejected by congressional Republicans last year. The goals he unveiled on Thursday were modest at best.

Where he promised to create 5 million green-energy jobs in 2008, this year he called for 600,000 jobs in the natural gas industry – a pace the booming sector appears to be on a path to achieve on its own.

The one million new manufacturing jobs he would create by 2016 would not be enough to replace the 2.3 million that disappeared during the recession, and the 100,000 new math and science teaching positions he proposed would equal the number of teaching jobs that have been lost during the past year because of budget woes.

But it was not a night to talk about policy.

With nearly half of U.S. voters only dimly aware of the difference between Republicans and Democrats, most watching on TV probably were just looking for Obama to convey authority and ease – a task he accomplished handily, analysts said.

“For a lot of voters who don’t want to get into the weeds on Medicare, they saw a rock star tonight,” said Potomac Research Group analyst Greg Valliere.

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Obama gives his acceptance speech for his party’s presidential nomination in a much smaller venue than planned, the 20,000-seat Time Warner Cable Arena, after the threat of severe weather forced a move from a 74,000-seat outdoor football stadium.

He has a hard act to follow in President Bill Clinton, who took on challenger Mitt Romney and his fellow Republicans in a detailed attack on Wednesday night that ignited the arena.

Under pressure to tell Americans how he will create jobs, Obama will lay out his vision for a second White House term in the nationally televised address that will be watched by tens of millions of people.

“The president now has an opportunity to talk about how we lift the country, how we rebuild the middle class, the things we have to do together to achieve the kind of future that people are looking for,” Senior Adviser David Axelrod said on MSNBC.

Vice President Joe Biden will also speak on the final night of a three-day convention that marks the start of the fall campaign season with the two White House contenders locked in a tight race.

Clinton galvanized Democrats on Wednesday with a hearty defense of Obama’s efforts to repair the economic “mess” inflicted by what Clinton said were misguided Republican policies of deregulation and huge tax cuts for the wealthy.

The two men hugged on stage after the speech, as Obama hoped to cash in on the former president’s popularity and benefit from his ability to plainly summarize complicated policy arguments.

“These speeches are all of a piece. We’re telling a story here,” Senior Adviser David Plouffe said on NBC’s “Today” show.

“I think President Clinton laid out very powerfully the president’s record and the choice in this election,” he said. “The president obviously tonight is going to talk about his record but [also] the path in front of the country.”

Obama and Romney have been running roughly even in polls before the Nov. 6 election as Obama struggles to make his case for reelection amid a tepid economic recovery and persistent high unemployment of 8.3 percent.

Obama has trailed Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who emphasizes his business background as head of a private equity fund, in many polls on the question of who would best handle the economy.

‘TIGHT AS A TICK’

An address by first lady Michelle Obama also energized the convention and lit up social media on Tuesday night.

But Plouffe played down expectations for a big boost in polls from the Democratic gathering.

“We think we’re making a lot of progress this week, but again you’re not going to see big bounces in this election,” Plouffe said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I think for the next 61 days it’s going to remain tight as a tick.”

The switch in venue for Thursday’s speech froze out tens of thousands of Obama supporters who had planned to attend the stadium speech, although watch parties were being organized nationally and around the convention in Charlotte, N.C.

Convention officials were trying to retain much of Thursday night’s schedule, including some of the musical acts like the Foo Fighters. Former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, wounded in a 2011 shooting, will lead the “Pledge of Allegiance” on Thursday, Roll Call reported.

Clinton set the stage for Obama with an address that directly responded to Republican questions about whether Americans are better off than they were when Obama took office.

“No president — not me or anyone before me — no one could have fully repaired all the damage that he found in just four years,” Clinton said of the economy Obama inherited from former Republican President George W. Bush.

“But conditions are improving, and if you’ll renew the president’s contract you will feel it,” he said.

The speech was vintage Clinton as he frequently left the prepared text for digressions on topics including George Washington’s false teeth. His attacks on Romney were made more effective by his praise for other Republicans including Bush and former President Ronald Reagan.

Clinton criticized Romney, as well as his running mate, Paul Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin, for backing the overhaul of the Medicare health program for seniors.

“If he’s elected and he does what he promised to do, then Medicare will go broke in 2016,” Clinton said.

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“He reminds me that we are playing a long game here, and that change is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once,” she told the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. “But eventually we get there. We always do.”

The popular first lady was the highest-profile advocate for her husband in the first of three days of speeches that will conclude with Obama’s address on Thursday to accept the Democratic presidential nomination to face Mitt Romney on November 6.

In a race that is too close to call nine weeks before Americans vote, Obama is vulnerable to the challenge from Republican nominee Romney due to a sluggish economy and 8.3 percent unemployment.

Obama’s economic argument got a little tougher on Tuesday. New surveys showed U.S. manufacturing shrank at its sharpest clip in more than three years last month, while exports and hiring in the sector also slumped.

The president is trying to use his convention to recapture the magic that carried him to victory in 2008 but he admitted to a Colorado television reporter that he would give himself a grade of “incomplete” for his first term.

The workmanlike first day of the convention showcased different parts of the party’s base of support, women, Hispanics and African-Americans.

They all took aim at Romney, and there were even what appeared to be some subtle digs from Mrs. Obama herself at the wealthy Republican. She spoke a week after Romney’s wife, Ann, hurled some zingers at Obama in promoting her husband at the Republican convention in Tampa.

“For Barack, success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives,” Michelle Obama said, perhaps a reference to multimillionaire Romney’s past as a private equity executive.

The message was not lost on Steve Holecko, 55, a Democratic delegate from Ohio.

“It was outstanding. She made a very clear distinction between her values and Mrs. Romney’s values. She clearly laid out the president’s vision of middle class-out growth,” he said.

A host of speakers at the gathering in Charlotte attacked Romney for his business record, refusal to release more tax returns and for spearheading a Republican “war on women.”

The Democrats even choreographed a swipe at the former Massachusetts governor from beyond the grave, by playing a video of late Senator Ted Kennedy getting the better of Romney during a debate in the 1994 election campaign for Kennedy’s Senate seat.

One of the most exuberant attackers was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who recently made a controversial claim that Romney had paid no income taxes for 10 years, which was shot down by Romney.

Reid took up the tax argument again.

“Mitt Romney says we should take his word that he paid his fair share? His word? Trust comes from transparency, and Mitt Romney comes up short on both,” Reid said.

WOMEN’S NIGHT

It was a night for women as the Democrats pressed their advantage with female voters, a gender gap that is a sore point for Republicans particularly after remarks by conservative Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin about “legitimate rape.”

About two dozen Democratic women members of the House of Representatives and congressional candidates took the stage together to knock the Republicans for their opposition to abortion rights.

“When my Republican colleagues held a hearing about birth control and refused to include a single woman on the first panel as a witness, I asked, ‘Where are the women?’” said New York congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

“Where are the women? The women are here. And we are on our way to re-elect our president,” she said, to cheers.

The Democrats highlighted Obama’s successes during his first term – from ordering the mission that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to the bailout of the auto industry – while reminding voters of the difficulties Obama faced when he took office.

“Four years ago, America stood on the brink of a depression,” said Julian Castro, mayor of the Texas city of San Antonio and a rising star in the party. “Despite incredible odds and united Republican opposition, our president took action. And now we’ve seen 4.5 million new jobs.”

Republicans complain that the Democrats are trying to concentrate on women’s issues and other topics so as to avoid talking about the economy.

“On the first night of President Obama’s convention, not a single speaker uttered the words ‘Americans are better off than they were four years ago,’” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

Obama went into the convention getting high marks from voters on personal attributes but facing doubts about his handling of the U.S. economy, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Overall, Romney led Obama 46 percent to 45 percent among likely voters.

With Democrats anxious about the tight race, Mrs. Obama urged party activists to rally around the president.

“We must work like never before, and we must once again come together and stand together for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward, my husband, our president, Barack Obama,” she said.

While the crowd roared its approval in the convention hall, it was unclear what impact Mrs. Obama’s speech would have among voters across the country.

“Michelle was terrific,” University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said in a tweet. “So was Ann. But anybody who studies elections will tell you: Spouses please voters but don’t change votes.”

Obama will make his acceptance speech in a 74,000-capacity football stadium on Thursday night.

Romney is ceding the political spotlight to Obama and staying off the campaign trail for most of this week. He spent Tuesday in Vermont, preparing for the three presidential debates that begin on October 3.

Former President Bill Clinton, who presided over economic boom times in his 1990s White House years, is the main Wednesday speaker.

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Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood brought his star power and trademark gravelly voice to the stage of the convention hall in Tampa on Thursday, jetting in as a surprise last-minute speaker to warm up the crowd for Romney’s acceptance speech.

Eastwood’s cameo appearance, including an ad-libbed monologue with an imaginary Obama in an empty chair, seemed to thrill many in the audience, but was widely panned by observers across the political spectrum.

“Clint, my hero, is coming across as sad and pathetic,” legendary Chicago film critic Roger Ebert said in a message on Twitter.com. “He didn’t need to do this to himself.”

Former Romney adviser Mike Murphy tweeted: “Note to file: Actors need a script.”

The 82-year-old Academy Award-winning director and actor, who endorsed Romney earlier this month, strode to the podium serenaded by the theme music from his classic western, “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.”

Eastwood delivered an off-the-cuff, deadpan discourse, at times biting in its criticism of Obama, at times supportive of Romney’s candidacy, whom he lauded for a “sterling” business record.

But more often he was nearly incoherent, meandering from one topic to another, including the state of the economy, the war in Afghanistan and the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay.

At one point, Eastwood said he “never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be president,” apparently unaware that Romney holds a law degree.

In one of his lucid moments, Eastwood – squinting, with his gaunt face framed by thinning, disheveled gray hair – told the cheering crowd: “When somebody does not do the job, we’ve gotta let them go.”

Occasionally, he paused to berate the chair, telling an absent Obama to “shut up.”

The phrase “invisible Obama” went viral on the Internet, and pictures of people with empty chairs filled Twitter. Obama’s own Twitter account posted a picture of Obama sitting in a chair marked “The President” with the comment, “This seat’s taken.”

DID CLINT BOMB?

Many felt that Eastwood bombed on the political stage.

“What the heck is THIS?” Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod tweeted.

“A great night for Mitt Romney just got sidetracked by Clint Eastwood. Wow. That was bad,” tweeted Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman who currently does commentary for MSNBC.

Some in the audience, however, were left starry-eyed.

“He’s a fabulous actor,” said Rita Wray, a member of the Mississippi delegation, who praised Eastwood’s “dry wit.” She said she was a fan of his movies, though she couldn’t name a single one.

It took some coaxing from the crowd, but Eastwood finally led the delegates in declaring “Make my day” – the signature line of the gun-slinging detective he played in the “Dirty Harry” movies.

Eastwood was reluctantly drawn into the 2012 campaign earlier this year when an ad by Chrysler, titled “Halftime in America” and narrated by Eastwood, ran during halftime of the Super Bowl.

Many people saw it as Eastwood promoting, and possibly endorsing, the Democratic president because Chrysler had received a government bailout.

Eastwood, who backed Republican John McCain’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid, flatly denied that, saying at the time that he was “certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama.”

Eastwood, a long-time Republican, has himself dabbled in politics. He served as mayor of his small upscale hometown, Carmel, California, in the 1980s.

Convention organizers preparing for the final night of the carefully scripted event had fueled buzz about a celebrity mystery speaker by leaving a spot open on the official program.

Just hours before the session began, Romney’s campaign confirmed that Eastwood was coming to town. His speech came just before Florida Senator Marco Rubio introduced Romney for the biggest test of his White House bid.

Republicans have long criticized Obama for his cozy relations with a bevy of liberal Hollywood stars like George Clooney, but convention planners apparently wanted to show that they too could bring a touch of show-business glamour to bear.

Despite Eastwood’s Republican affiliation, many of his views differ with the party. Though he has described himself as a fiscal conservative, he backs gay marriage, favors gun control and abortion rights and supports environmental causes.

That may reinforce some conservatives’ suspicions that Romney is himself insufficiently conservative.

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Eastwood is no stranger to politics. From his brief stint as mayor of Carmel, Calif., from 1986 to 1988, to financial or vocal support for candidates from both sides of the aisle, our favorite Space Cowboy (sorry, Tommy) has a bit of a history of getting involved in electoral politics.

Earlier this year, various reports described Eastwood as a supporter of Ron Paul based on his identifying as a libertarian and his wildly enthusiastic characterization of Ron Paul being “as good as anybody else.” (Eastwood was going to withhold a definitive opinion on a specific candidate until he finished “listening to all that crap on television,” bless him.)

In the 1980s, Eastwood also collaborated with Nancy Reagan on two PSAs for the “War on Drugs.” In the first one, he proffers what he dubs a “cute little vial” of crack cocaine, and in the second one, he offers some sage advice:

Says Eastwood: “Who you believe is up to you. But then again, if you go ahead and try them, it won’t be out of ignorance. Just stupidity.”

And that’s your lesson in voting from Clint Eastwood.

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In her most significant return to the national stage since leaving the State Department, Rice criticized Obama’s handling of uprisings in the Middle East, said the United States has fallen behind China in international trade and has not moved far enough toward energy independence under the Democrat, whom she did not mention by name.

“We cannot be reluctant to lead, and you cannot lead from behind,” said Rice, who was greeted with loud cheers by standing, sign-waving delegates.

Rice, the face of foreign policy under Republican President George W. Bush, was part of a lineup of speakers designed to assure Americans that foreign policy would be handled well under Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, and his vice presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin.

Neither man has extensive international experience.

Romney’s attempts to show some clout in foreign affairs have resulted in several stumbles.

He deemed Russia the biggest geopolitical threat America faces, something policy analysts agreed has not been true for years. Romney’s critics say that in bashing Obama’s record, he has failed to outline his own plans for handling global problems.

Rice also avoided specifics but said the Republican candidates would provide strong leadership.

“Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will rebuild us at home and they will help us lead abroad. They will provide an answer to the question, ‘Where does America stand?’” she said.

Rice largely avoided politics after leaving the State Department in 2009 and has insisted repeatedly that she is not interested in elected office.

But she has played an increasing role in politics this year, campaigning for Romney and other Republican candidates, particularly women.

A rare prominent black woman in a party long viewed as a bastion of white, male power, Rice seemed to be auditioning for something more in her wide-ranging speech, one of the best-received of the Tampa convention.

Rice touted Romney’s positions on domestic issues such as education, called for a “compassionate” immigration policy and told her own story – of an African-American girl who grew up in the segregated U.S. South, then became the first black woman to become secretary of state.

“She’s a very elegant speaker,” said Janice McConaha-Komer, an alternate delegate from Texas. “She certainly is good for us women. She definitely represents women very favorably.”

NO MENTION OF AFGHANISTAN

Rice, 57, recently stepped into the spotlight in another way.

On August 20 the Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, home of the Masters golf tournament, ended an all-male policy that had endured for 80 years by admitting its first two women members, one of them Rice.

The club had admitted its first black member in 1990.

Rice’s appearance was a rare reminder during Romney’s convention of Bush, the last Republican president, who left office with a 34 percent approval rating. He appeared in Tampa only in a videotaped tribute to his father that was not shown during the convention’s prime-time television slot.

Rice was involved in some of the most controversial aspects of Bush’s presidency, including the war in Iraq. The only reference to Iraq in her speech was when she cited its struggling new democracy.

She made no mention of the ongoing war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001 when she was Bush’s national security adviser but is strongly connected with Obama’s greatest foreign policy triumph, the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Ahead of the convention’s turn to diplomacy, Romney delivered a scathing criticism of Obama’s foreign policy in a speech in Indianapolis on Wednesday.

He accused Obama of weakening America’s place in the world, setting the tone for the convention speeches by Rice and another Republican foreign policy heavyweight – Arizona Senator John McCain.

An Obama’s campaign spokeswoman lashed back, accusing Romney of using “reckless bluster and vague platitudes” to try to score political points.

In his speech, McCain – who was a prisoner of war during the Vietnam conflict – criticized Obama for the U.S. government’s leaks of classified information.

Rice’s name emerged in July as a possible vice presidential running mate for Romney, but the speculation faded quickly. Politically, Rice falls to the left of Romney on controversial domestic policy issues such as abortion and gay marriage rights.

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According to Nootbaar’s dad, David Nootbaar, Kaitlin drew inspiration from “Eclipse: The Twilight Saga” for her speech at the commencement ceremony of Prague High School.

“Her quote was, when she first started school she wanted to be a nurse, then a veterinarian and now that she was getting closer to graduation people would ask her what do you want to do and she said ‘How the h*** do I know? I’ve changed my mind so many times,’” Nootbaar told KFOR.

The speech was well received by the crowd and the rest of the ceremony continued as planned. However, when Kaitlin went in to pick-up her physical diploma, the principal refused to give it to her.

“We went to the office and asked for the diploma and the principal said ‘Your diploma is right here but you’re not getting it. Close the door we have a problem,” David Nootbaar said.  

The principal asked that Kaitlin issue a written formal apology for use of the word, which she has so far refused to do. She begins college on a full scholarship in just a few days. Officials at Prague High School has refused to comment on the controversy.

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New York’s notoriously unapologetic mayor didn’t hesitate to air his grievances with the ridiculous remarks prepared for him to be read before the Nathan’s hot dog-eating contest at Coney Island.

Not one for slapstick humor, Mayor Bloomberg struggled to hide his annoyance as he read through the comments that included quips like “swallow the competition,” “dogged pursuers” and “pronounced wiener.”

After a brief pause, the mayor asked, “Who wrote this sh-t?”

We don’t know, but we’re guessing he or she is in the (hot) dog house.

(Video via Daily News)

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