( CNN ) -- The second inaugural address is always more difficult than the first . When a president-elect first steps onto the national stage , he still enjoys a certain degree of innocence and hope . Americans are waiting to see if the new president will be different . When a new president delivers his speech , voters do n't yet have a record that might make them cynical . But by the second term , voters are familiar , and often tired , with the occupant of the White House . Even though they liked him more than his opponents , the president has usually been through some pretty tough battles and his limitations have been exposed . It becomes much harder to deliver big promises , when the people watching have a much clearer sense of your limitations and of the strength of your opponents . So President Barack Obama faces a big test when he appears before the nation Monday . Opinion : Presidents should n't swear in on a Bible . Obama now is Washington , and no longer someone who will be able to shake up the way Washington works . Voters believe that Congress is dysfunctional and have little confidence that legislators will respond to his proposals . Overseas , the instability and violence in the Middle East has shaken the confidence of many Americans that Obama can achieve the kind of transformative change he promised back in 2009 . Obama , who is a student of history , can look back at some past second inaugural addresses if he wants guidance . Three of the best of these addresses offer a roadmap . Abraham Lincoln , March 4 , 1865 : The strongest was from Lincoln , who gave his talk amid the brutality of the Civil War but chose to stress the theme of healing and unity , Lincoln gave a masterful performance that offered inspiration and encouragement for the reunification of the nation . Lincoln famously said : `` With malice toward none , with charity for all , with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right , let us strive on to finish the work we are in , to bind up the nation 's wounds , to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan , to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations . '' Rather than boasting of military victory or threatening Southern forces , he stepped outside the battle to offer the nation , as a whole , the path forward . Woodrow Wilson , March 5 , 1917 : Although Wilson had run on a campaign to keep America out of world war , he was aware that such intervention was inevitable . During his second inaugural address , Wilson took the opportunity to start preparing the nation for what was about to come . He told America to think about the global responsibilities it had to accept , even if much of the nation was not prepared to do so . `` We are provincials no longer , '' he said , `` The tragic events of the thirty months of vital turmoil which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world . There can be no turning back . '' Opinion : Why 'Hail to the Chief ' remains unsung . Franklin Roosevelt , January 20 , 1937 : Roosevelt gave a rousing performance that outlined the fundamental vision which shaped the wide array of policies he had put forward in his first term . While many people had criticized FDR for lacking any ideology and for being a pragmatist without principle , in his second address he explained the rationale behind his actions : `` I see millions denied education , recreation , and the opportunity to better their lot and the lot of their children . I see one-third of a nation ill-housed , ill-clad , ill-nourished . '' For Democrats , the speech remains a powerful defense of government and the rationale behind his program . To replicate some of this success , Obama will need to figure out how to inspire a nation that is frustrated by the gridlock of Washington and the laggard state of the economy and worried about instability overseas . Obama can learn from all three of these presidents . Like Wilson , he can talk to Americans about goals they should aspire to achieve , ways in which the country can accept new obligations in a changing world . Like Lincoln , he can urge the nation to move beyond the discord and division that have characterized political debate in the past four years . Finally , like Roosevelt , he can use his speech to provide some of the justification and outlook that has shaped his policies . This would undercut the ability of Republicans to define his policies for him , as has been the case for much of his first term , and motivate supporters who have often felt that Obama remained too much of a mystery . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Julian Zelizer .
Julian said : Second term inaugural addresses are always a challenge . He says the public has had four years to make a judgment about the president . Obama can learn from second term speeches of Lincoln , Wilson , FDR . He says they did a good job of describing America and its vision of the world .