Agencies
Washington, Jan 21: Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday, and called on Americans to join him in confronting what he described as an economic crisis caused by greed but also our collective failure to make hard choices.
“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” Obama said in his inaugural address minutes after he took the oath of office on the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inaugural in 1861. “They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.”
Obama, the first African-American to serve as President, spoke to a sea of cheering people, hundreds of thousands of Americans packed on the National Mall from the Capitol to beyond the Washington monument. The multitude was filled with black Americans and Obama’s triumph was a special and emotional moment for them.
With his wife, Michelle, holding the Bible, Obama, the 47-year-old son of a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Africa, was sworn in just after noon, a little later than planned, and spoke immediately thereafter.
In his speech, Obama promised to take “bold and swift” action to restore the economy by creating jobs through public works projects, improving education, promoting alternative energy and relying on new technology.
“Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America,” Obama said in a prepared copy of his remarks.
The new president also noted the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the “far-reaching network of violence and hatred” that seeks to harm the country. He used strong language in pledging to confront terrorism, nuclear proliferation and other threats from abroad, saying to the nation’s enemies, “you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.”
But he also signalled a clean break from some of the Bush administration’s policies on national security. “As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals,” he said, adding that the United States is “ready to lead once more.”
New direction
He acknowledged that some are skeptical of his ability to fulfil the hope that many have in his ability to move the nation in a new direction. “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,” said Obama, who ran for stressing a commitment to reduce partisanship. “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.”
Packed mall
Hundreds of thousands of people packed the National Mall from the West Front of the Capitol to beyond the Washington monument, buttoned up against the freezing chill but projecting a palpable sense of hope as Obama becomes the first African American to hold the nation’s highest elected office. It was the largest inaugural crowd in decades, perhaps the largest ever; the throng and the anticipation began building even before the sun rose.
After his speech, following a carefully designed script that played out all morning, Obama headed inside the Capitol and signed nomination papers for the Cabinet members he chose in the weeks following his November 4 victory.
The crowd, before noon, was easily well into the hundreds of thousands. Even before the sun rose or the mercury rose to the freezing point, people had streamed from all directions to the West Front of the Capitol, making their way on foot and by mass transit, since traffic was barred from a wide area around the grounds and the National Mall for security and to prevent gridlock.
Blacks prevalent
Given the historic nature of Obama’s election, black Americans appeared to be much more prevalent in the gathering crowd than at inaugurals of the recent past.
Earlier in the morning, the Obamas went to church, followed by coffee with President Bush and wife Laura.
They left Blair House at 8:47 am for the short drive in their new presidential Cadillac limousine to St. John’s Episcopal Church, just a few blocks away, for a prayer service. Obama wore a dark suit and red tie. Michelle Obama wore a sparkling golden dress and matching coat.
As the Obamas sat in the centre of a front row pew, next to Vice President-elect Joseph Biden Jr and his wife, Jill, the keynote speaker, Bishop T D Jakes of the Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, read a biblical passage from Daniel 3:19. He then offered some lessons clearly aimed both to brace and hearten the president-elect: “In time of crisis, good men must stand up”; “You cannot change what you will not confront,” and “You cannot enjoy the light without enduring the heat.”
Vice-president
Shortly before 10 am, the Obamas arrived at the White House, accompanied by Biden and his wife. The Obamas were met at the door by the Bushes. The two men shook hands and with their wives posed for a picture before going inside for a traditional coffee and a final few moments for the Bushes in the home they have occupied the past eight years.
Bush and Obama left the White House at 10:47 and, pausing only momentarily for photographers, entered the limousine that would take them to the Capitol. They arrived there 10 minutes later.
Obama’s assumption of the presidency caps a remarkable rise for a man first elected to national office in 2004, winning a Senate seat in a year when he also delivered the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. To win the presidency, he defeated Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, who will become his secretary of state.