President Obama: Millions witness a profound moment

WASHINGTON – Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States yesterday, and called on Americans to join him in confronting what he described as an economic crisis caused not only by greed but also “our collective failure to make hard choices”.

WASHINGTON – Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th president of the United States yesterday, and called on Americans to join him in confronting what he described as an economic crisis caused not only by greed but also “our collective failure to make hard choices”.
“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real,” President 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 – estimated at well over one million – 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..
‘BOLD ACTION’

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.
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”.
He acknowledged that some are sceptical 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.”
The hundreds of thousands of people who packed the National Mall from the West Front of the Capitol to beyond the Washington monument, buttoned up against the freezing chill but projected a palpable sense of hope as Obama became 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 was to head inside the Capitol and sign nomination papers for the Cabinet members he chose in the weeks following his November 4 victory.

SYMBOLISM

Though Obama did not emphasise his African American heritage as a candidate, the symbolism was evident and was reinforced by the fact that the swearing in was taking place the day following the national holiday to mark the birth of Dr Martin Luther King.
He takes office less than a month before the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, another Illinoisan who took the office at a time of national turmoil and a man whom Obama clearly looks to as an inspiration for his own presidency.
“Today is about validation of the dream Dr. King enunciated 45 years ago on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial,” Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina, the No 3 Democrat in the House and the highest ranking black lawmaker in Congress, said yesterday morning.
– Extracted from The New York Times