President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama waved to well-wishers as they stepped out of their armored limousine near the end of the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue today. (Tribune photo by Zbgniew Bzdak)
by Mark Silva and updated
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama, celebrating his inauguration with a slow, late-running parade delivering him to the White House, stepped out to walk two stretches of the last few blocks to his family's new home, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Stepping away from the new tank-like black Cadillac limousine built for the 44th president, Obama and wife Michelle walked side by side holding hands and waving at the crowds lining Pennsylvania Avenue, past the Navy Memorial, past the National Archives. They climbed back in the car and then stepped out again as they neared their final path past the Treasury Department and toward the White House reviewing stands.
Not since Jimmy Carter's inauguration in 1976 had a president stepped out to stroll along a path that ends with the closed-to-vehicles stretch of Pennsylvania in front of the White House.
"I'd like...all of us to rededicate ourselves to fulfilling the sacred charge the American people have given to us.,'' Obama told congressional leaders over lunch in the Capitol.
"I'd like all of us to come together with a sense of purpose and civility and urgency,'' he said. "It doesn't mean we're going to agree on everything, and I assure you our administration will make mistakes. But what the American people, I think, do expect from us now is a sense not of simply our trying to advance our own aims, but trying to advance theirs. And I'm confident we can do so.''
Some Republican leaders somewhat reluctantly acknowledged that the new Democratic president from Chicago had delivered a "good'' - even "poetic'' - inaugural address to an audience estimated at well over a million on the National Mall.
Obama bade farewell to former President George W. Bush, who left the Capitol after the inauguration bound for Andrews Air Force Base and a flight home to Texas. Obama headed to a lunch of pheasant and duck in Statutory Hall of the Capitol before the parade of floats and marching bands that would escort him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the first time as president.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio), whose office had issued a statement of readiness to work with the new president, was asked what he thought of the address. "It was good,'' he said.
Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, entering Statuary Hall, was asked about the address that Obama delivered to an audience spanning from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial: "It started off a little slow,'' Hatch said, "but it ended up being very poetic and very good.''
Obama, calling on Americans to embrace "a new era of responsibility,'' delivered an address sober in its recognition of the crises that Americans confront yet soaring in its assignment.
Obama, sworn in Tuesday as 44th president of the United States, focused on not only the economic crisis that the nation confronts, but also a crisis of confidence which he said can only be overcome with a renewed national resolve for greatness.
"What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility,'' Obama said in a long-anticipated and largely self-crafted inaugural address, "a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
"This is the price and the promise of citizenship,'' the newly inaugurated president said under a sunny sky on a cold, wintry day that drew many hundreds of thousands of people to see the historic event. A celebrant crowd that had started braving the cold before dawn apparently stood ready for a new president's call to "pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work.''
"On this day,'' Obama said, "we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.''
Barack Hussein Obama, born of a mother from Kansas and father from Kenya who had their only son in Hawaii, is unique in American history: The first African-American president of a nation once riven by slavery and racially segregated by law for decades.
Obama swore to the oath of office on Abraham Lincoln's Bible before an audience jamming and spanning a two-mile length of the National Mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.
At 47, Obama is not be the nation's youngest chief executive -- Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and William Jefferson Clinton were younger at their inaugurations. But the Democrat from Chicago, a lawmaker, constitutional lawyer and onetime community activist, has united young and old with his call for "a new declaration of independence'' from divisiveness.
"Every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms,'' Obama said. "At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because 'we the people' have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
"So it has been,'' the new president told a nation. "So it must be with this generation of Americans.''
Obama enters office at one of the most challenging junctures in modern history: In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and with the nation at war on two fronts.
"We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth,'' Obama said. "Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished...
"Starting today,'' he said, "we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.''
The new president will ask the Congress to approve, within his first month in office, a nearly $1-trillion economic stimulus that promises more than 3 million new jobs in the next few years.
"He is going to be counting on the American people to come together," said retired Gen. Colin Powell, who served as secretary of state for former President George W. Bush and backed Obama. "We all have to do something to help the country move forward under the leadership of this new president."
Obama faces the same scenario which Bush faced, a concern which consumed his presidency, a persisting threat of terrorism.
"Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred,'' Obama said. "Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age...
"Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land - a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights,'' he said. "The challenges we face are real. 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...''
Among the many who packed the National Mall on this day: Gloria Washington-Lewis Randall, an African-American from Alabama who spent two and a half weeks in jail after a civil rights demonstration in 1963. "You don't really notice the cold out here,'' she said. "It's a warmness that's coming up. Because no more will we be called black or white. We'll be called Americans."
Obama enters office with a pledge for an "orderly'' and "responsible'' withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq after nearly six years of war that has claimed more than 4,000 American lives. At the same time, he supports an escalation of U.S. military force in Afghanistan, "the real front in the war against terrorism.''
A Harvard-bred attorney who served less than one term in the Senate, the former Illinois state lawmaker assumes office as the culmination of a dream that he himself has billed as "audacious:'' A candidate with a "funny name'' unknown to much of the nation just five years ago.
Obama shed his anonymity with the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in the summer of 2004: "I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.''
The upstart Democrat remained a long-shot for the nation's highest office when he announced his candidacy in front of the Old State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., on Feb. 10, 2007.
"I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness - a certain audacity - to this announcement,'' Obama told a crowd filling the square on a frigid winter day. "I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change. ''
He entered a crowded contest for the Democratic Party's nomination, with much of the party's conventional wisdom pointed toward the nomination of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a former first lady. In the end, after outrunning Clinton in a long-fought primary race, he has named her secretary of state.
In Republican Sen. John McCain, the GOP's early-settled presidential nominee, Obama faced a much older, more seasoned senator with a military hero's story to boot. At first, the war in Iraq stood as a defining difference. Yet, as the campaign progressed, the protracted war was eclipsed by economic calamity.
By Election Day, Obama had amassed support in enough states - including some that had long voted Republican, such as Virginia and Indiana - for an Electoral College landslide.
On Tuesday, "I, Barack Hussein Obama'' raised his right hand and swore to preserve the Constitution of the United States.
"With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come,'' Obama said in his address. "Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter, and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.''
Comments
Here's what the UK Telegraph said about the speech:
"QUITE a day, but not much of speech unfortunately. Obama got where he is by speechifying, but this effort would not have won him many votes. It was his worst on a grand stage, though still better than most politicians could muster.
The delivery, as ever, was first class, but the message was wasn't clear enough and the language not insufficiently inspiring.
As soon as the applause had died down, an African American standing man near me on the Mall said to his friend: "I thought the speech was sh*t." Another woman said, correctly, that "we had heard it all before at other events"."
The Telegraph review is typical of the reaction of newspapers outside Chicago, and of people who don't have to genuflect to Obama's media buddies.
Posted by: Bruce | January 20, 2009 4:19 PM
Apparently you missed what newspapers from around the world said about the outgoing president. Ignorant and arrogant come to mind.
Posted by: Dave | January 20, 2009 4:43 PM
Oh, I thought the speech was spot on - covering ALL the bases!
http://lifeisacookie.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/inahhhhhhhhguration/
Posted by: thecookie | January 20, 2009 4:45 PM
Poor RNC Bruce,
On the outside looking in....
Posted by: Doug Zook | January 20, 2009 4:51 PM
"Genuflect"? What is that? Nobody is "genuflecting" to anyone. Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Posted by: Gus | January 20, 2009 4:51 PM
Bruce:
I can't trust your "quote" of the Telegraph because of "the message was wasn't clear enough and the language not insufficiently inspiring"
"was wasn't"?? "not insufficiently"??? WTF?
Posted by: Huh, Bruce? | January 20, 2009 4:53 PM
Oh Bruce, I hope and pray that your not one of those partisan Americans who will not be happy unless President Barack Obama fails and the United States falls further into despair. This is a day of hope for all Americans. If we all come to work together there is no way we can fail and we will all certainly prosper. Our country's fate is in all our hands, and I trust that you like myself will put away the partisanship and decide to do whats right for all Americans. God bless all the United States of America. God bless our new President, and God bless us all!
Posted by: MBR47 | January 20, 2009 5:08 PM
"The Telegraph review is typical of the reaction of newspapers outside Chicago, and of people who don't have to genuflect to Obama's media buddies."
Ah, the Telegraph, or as some call it, the Torygraph. Once owned by Conrad Black. Not exactly an unbiased source, but thanks for playing.
Posted by: Tracy | January 20, 2009 5:29 PM
Guess the UK Telegraph reporter didn't listen very well. Speech was very good, to the point and well-delivered. Then again, was that really the UK Telegraph with strange "insufficient" writing? And Bruce, really, you need to get a life. There is a lot of hope here and definitely since we haven't had any for the last 8 years. Maybe your just too wet behind the ears to recognize an intelligent, thoughtful president when you see one.
Posted by: Judith Traverso | January 20, 2009 5:40 PM
As a public service, I'm posting a link to the source of Bruce's quote. Unlike Bruce, I have no fear of the quote and it's source being seen and independaetly evaluated.
Bruce, as usual, has not been fully forthcoming about his quote, and , also as usual, has tried to cover up that fact by not linking to the original source material.
For the record, the quote does not come from an article or editorial of the Tekegraph. It comes form the blog of an indivdual reporter, something similar to our dear old Swamp. The tone of the articles on the rest of the Telegraph have a substantially more positive tone.
But why believe me, see for yourself.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/alex_spillius/blog/2009/01/20/barack_obama_inauguration_his_worst_speech
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
The quote isn't typical of the reporting printed in the Telegraph itself, let alone the newspapers of the world. Nice try Bruce.
Posted by: Lou | January 20, 2009 5:40 PM
Bruce,
This guy's farts are more inspirational than W. Time to tear down your shrine.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport ✌ | January 20, 2009 5:43 PM
Why is it that liberals only want bipartinship when they are in power? I didn't hear anyof them saying that when Bush was prez. I didn't hear them saying we need to "work together" the last eight years. I didn't hear them saying "do what's right for America" when Bush was in office.
But, oops, I forgot we now have "mesiah" Obama and he's going to fix everything with a wave of his magic wand and we need to support him; we need to get behind him and get past bipartisinship.
I, even though I did not vote for this man, do feel we need to pray the Lord Jesus' blessings over him according to Romans 13; but I will nto support his Marxist agenda; his murdering of babies; his support of homosexual sin as normal. No way, never! This countryis in the situation it's in because of moral decline, plain and simple. And, I see nothing in Obama that is going to bring us back up. He pretty much sold his soul to the moral degenerates get elected and that is nothing is to be proud of.
Posted by: Tee | January 20, 2009 5:44 PM
Bruce has fabricated his quotation. I just read every article that the Telegraph has and none contained that text, or even that sentiment. Maybe he is quoting a comment from a like-minded individual posting as we are, or maybe he quoted his own posting.
Posted by: y | January 20, 2009 5:52 PM
Bush's Legacy:
.
http://media.photobucket.com/image/nixon/Getyousome/RichardNixonHelicopter.jpg
.
Worse than Tricky Dick's legacy....
Posted by: Darth | January 20, 2009 5:52 PM
Well said MBR47. As a conservative who did not vote for President Obama, I am behind him 100% and think he has the intelligence and charisma to do great things both foreign and domestic. This is a day for hope, and my greatest hope is that President Obama can fulfill the promise of bipartisanship and keep the hyper-partisan Pelosi, Reid, et al in check. President Obama's greatest threat to derailing the train of hope and change is his own party.
Posted by: Kevin | January 20, 2009 5:57 PM
.....
I, even though I did not vote for this man, do feel we need to pray the Lord Jesus' blessings over him according to Romans 13; but I will nto support his Marxist agenda; his murdering of babies; his support of homosexual sin as normal. No way, never! This countryis in the situation it's in because of moral decline, plain and simple. And, I see nothing in Obama that is going to bring us back up. He pretty much sold his soul to the moral degenerates get elected and that is nothing is to be proud of.
Posted by: Tee | January 20, 2009 5:44 PM
...
Republicans like you continue to push the idea that this is a center-right country and that Americans have swooned for GOP anti-government posturing all these years, but the real electoral bait for you has been anger, recrimination and scapegoating. That's why John McCain kept describing Barack Obama as some sort of alien and why Palin, taking a page right out of the McCarthy playbook, kept pushing Obama's relationship with onetime radical William Ayers.
And that is also why the Republican Party, despite the recent failure of McCarthyism, is likely to keep moving rightward, appeasing its more extreme elements and stoking their grievances for some time to come. There may be assorted intellectuals and ideologues in the party, maybe even a few centrists, but there is no longer an intellectual or even ideological wing. The party belongs to McCarthy and his heirs -- Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Palin. It's in the genes.
I think you're starting to lose it, the recent elections have delivered a clear repudiation to just about everything you stand for, particularly that monumental waste of time and energy known as the Culture War and Small Gov Conservatism. Unfortunately you seem to have built your entire life out of stoking the flames of that dimming fire.
Posted by: allardice | January 20, 2009 6:12 PM
Rats Bruce, you got busted again crying foul of the media by employing the same tactics you claim to despise.
Should The Swamp writers do as you say or do as you do?
Hypocrite.
Posted by: Bubba ✔ | January 20, 2009 6:27 PM
Not 5 hours into the new administration, and already Obama's hate-filled, illiterate ("independaetly", Lou?) backers are trying to squelch other views via personal attacks.
Mark, are you proud that so few readers still bother to read and agree with you? Are you proud that these same readers combine grade-school level attacks with grade-school level grammar?
Posted by: Bruce | January 20, 2009 6:35 PM
May every one wake up tomorrow and wish that Bush was in open. The worst has just begun
Posted by: annjilly | January 20, 2009 6:50 PM
"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate." B.H. Obama
Posted by: We're in this together. | January 20, 2009 7:18 PM
Posted by: Bruce | January 20, 2009 6:35 PM
Bruce, cry all you want. All I did was link to the article you quoted so that everyone could see the context. Far from trying to squelch opposing views, I linked to the opposing view, and the reporting elsewhere in the same paper. I guess you didn't want people to be able to read and judge for themselves without your filter in between. No personal attacks, just facts, none of which you dispute. And all you had to come back with in response was a typo on my part. I think i can live with the shame.
Posted by: Lou | January 20, 2009 7:18 PM
I think the new President's biggest clash and headache will be with Nancy Pelosi. Hope he sets that broad straight at the get go.
Posted by: vla | January 20, 2009 7:27 PM
Here we go again....negative comments. Why cant we start off fresh and BELIEVE that the US can rise above all the worlds turmoil that MR Bush somehow created. I really dont care what the rest of the world says (The Telegraph...what a joke). This is OUR country!
Posted by: KF | January 20, 2009 7:29 PM
Didn't the Clintons walk their first inaugural parade?
Posted by: Quick Joey Small | January 20, 2009 7:51 PM
America's markets react to a socialist...
From the AP wire:
"The Dow Jones industrial average fell 332.13, or 4.01 percent, to 7,949.09, its biggest inaugural day drop in history."
A sad day for our economy indeed!
Posted by: Patrick | January 20, 2009 7:56 PM
I liked the fact that people were posting live feeds, photos, and videos directly to the internet. It made it easier for people like me, in Portland, to simply connect to my wireless internet connection in order to get immediate updates. There was so much going on, I didn't have the patience to just sit at home watching.
Posted by: Erin | January 20, 2009 8:23 PM
Gotta love the irony of Bush now being unemployed. Not only did he leave us with the highest unemployment rate in years, but since his presidency was such a disaster, no one wants to hire him. Mission Accomplished!
Posted by: Bobby J | January 20, 2009 8:45 PM
Hey Bruce, where you goin' with that gun in your hand
Hey Bruce, I said where you goin' with that gun in your hand
I'm going down to shoot the messenger
You know, I've caught him writing 'bout that Obama man
I'm going down to shoot the messenger
You know, I've caught him writing bout that Obama man
And that ain't too cool
Hey Bruce, I've heard you shot your boogey man down,
shot him down, now
I said I've heard you shot your boogey man down,
You shot him down to the ground
Yes I did, I shot him
You know, I caught him writin' round, writin' round town
Yes I did, I shot him
You know, I caught him writin' around town
And I gave him the gun
I SHOT HIM!
Hey Bruce, alright
Shoot him one more time, baby
Hey Bruce, said now
Where you gonna run to now?
Where you gonna run to?
Hey Bruce, I said where you gonna run to now?
Where you, where you gonna go?
Well, dig it
I'm goin' way down south,
Way down Texas way
Alright!
I'm goin' way down south,
Way down where I can be a Freeper
Ain't no one gonna find me
Ain't no hangman gonna,
He ain't gonna put a rope around me
You better believe it right now
I gotta go now
Hey Bruce, you better run on down
Good by everybody
Hey Bruce, uhh
Run on down
Posted by: dt☢ | January 20, 2009 9:06 PM
Ok Obama bla, bla, bla, your day in the b.s light is ending and the reality is setting in , you wont fix the economy , because it is global you are not MR. MAGOO! YOU ARE JUST ANOTHER PUPPET OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY FULL OF B.S SOON THE SAME PEOPLE THAT WENT BLINDED TO THE VOTING BOOTH WHO HAD TEARS WATCHING YOU IN 6 MOTH WILL BE ASKING FOR YOU RESIGNATION YOU KNOW AS MUCH ABOUT HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY LIKE I KNOW THatSUPERMAN IS REAL. Bush ill bet must happy to leave the white house
Posted by: anthony williams | January 20, 2009 9:28 PM
Brucey boy.....did you have a little poo fall on your face when you were flinging with both hands? Post your source you idiot! You look like a complete fool! I don't care how much you type, I want to see something that starts with a www. You look as bad as the rest of the pugs today, that just can not keep it together. Go back to church and say a preyer for yourself.
Posted by: Xcellentform | January 20, 2009 9:47 PM
The hatred of our new president is shocking. Some of these posts reflect a hatred apparently based on the man's skin color. That is inexcusable. As a white person, I am ashamed that your heart is filled with hatred based on the man's skin color.
Your lives must be filled with hatred and that is sad. It is not too late to abandon your hatred and deal with everyone with good will.
Other hatred expressed here is based on his party and his opinions. Why can't adults disagree without hatred? Didn't you see Orrin Hatch talking about Ted Kennedy? They disagree on just about every topic but they respect each other and are good friends.
Being an adult and disagreeing as an adult. Try it...you will probably find that it will enrich your life.
Right now, your childish arguments reflect a very shallow and superficial existence. Please try harder to make a positive contribution to this earth...if not for yourself, for your children.
Posted by: As I See It | January 20, 2009 9:48 PM
Tee: former prez Bush didn't CARE what our opinion was... or the rest of the world either, for that matter...a truly arrogant person...when he got elected he said the American people had given him a blank check and he intended to spend it...THAT was the understatement of all time!!!
Posted by: Dawson | January 20, 2009 9:58 PM
Is this considered sacred speech by our new President? Apparently it is. It's an extremely bad start. Racism, anti-White hatred, a slap in the face of a Whites in America. That is a bad start
"... we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right."
Posted by: tomas | January 20, 2009 10:30 PM
The Left was consumed with Bush Derangement Syndrome for 8 yrs. Now they're consumed with Obama Messiah Syndrome. Both are hugely based on emotion, nothing else.
Oh, and before the reactionaries come out with their 'you Republicans', blah, blah, blah, I'm an Independent who never voted for Bush nor Obama.
PS--I've been reading the UK's Telegraph for years. Spillius is their worst 'journalist'.
Posted by: MCD | January 20, 2009 11:10 PM
Look at those Cadillac grills highlighted in the picture like no other presidency. O.K., I think we have all been "overcome" today.
Put your tax dollars to work with this guy. There's no more blaming "The Man" for everything that is wrong with the country.
Let's GO! I'm very anxious to see what Obama Hussein can do.
Posted by: Put Him To Work | January 21, 2009 12:04 AM
tomas you're not quoting the President, you're quoting Joseph Lowery; it was a light moment, so lighten up a bit, dude.
Posted by: Flo | January 21, 2009 8:01 AM
The Left was consumed with Bush Derangement Syndrome for 8 yrs. Now they're consumed with Obama Messiah Syndrome. Both are hugely based on emotion, nothing else.
Posted by: MCD | January 20, 2009 11:10 PM
And for those same 8 years, the Right was consumed with "Bush Savior Disorder" (administered simultaneously with "Clinton Rage Dementia") and have now switched to "Obama Derangement Syndrome." No less an emotional basis. What's your point? That the Right spent 8 years innocently being bashed by the Left with no fault on their part while at the same time never once resorting to any kind of irrational hate? That'd be a bald-faced lie. Are you saying that the Left had no real, logical basis for criticizing Bush? Also a lie. That we think Obama is some kind of god? That we think he'll somehow perform a miracle overnight? Lie and -- by the way -- LIE. Get over yourself.
Posted by: Op109 | January 21, 2009 3:39 PM
Speaking of "charge" - Obama should really look into the charging problem that people have - in other words - credit card management -
It's time we learn how to "CHARGE Large Responsibly!"
http://www.ChargeLargeGame.com
Posted by: Spencer | January 31, 2009 4:38 PM