Obama Inaugurated
At 12:06 pm Eastern Standard Time, Barack Hussein Obama placed his right hand on the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln and repeated a short oath administered to him by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts. With the words “So help me God” Obama officially become part of a select, distinguished society of men in our nation’s history. He became our 44th President. While the situation Obama steps into requires his immediate attention, and he has already been hard at work after only one week, for one day Obama was able to enjoy a reprieve from leading the free world, and instead, lead the party of the year in Washington D.C.
As more than one million people packed into the mall with the crowd stretched from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, the day’s festivities began with temperatures in the teens. This highly anticipated event was easily the most attended inauguration in our nation’s history. After his cabinet was sworn in and Aretha sang, Obama took to the podium to take the oath of office. Two interesting occurrences took place at this point. The first involved the transfer of power. In the Constitution it says that the reigning president’s term ends officially at noon. However, Obama wasn’t sworn until 12:06. So, technically, we went six minutes without a president. As far as I know, the world didn’t stop.
The other occurrence involved the actual oath. Roberts, swearing in a president for the first time, fumbled the words and said part of it out of order. After some hesitation by Obama, they were able to recover and proceed.
The speech itself was a somber one that had more than its share of prominent lines. Firstly, Obama began with “My fellow citizens” rather than the “My fellow Americans” that has been customary recently. Obama channels both the Apostle Paul and Abraham Lincoln in this line: “We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit, to choose our better history.”
Other notable remarks include “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.” Also, “a nation cannot prosper when it favors only the prosperous.” The one phrase, though, that captures the speech the best is “…a new era of responsibility.”
After his speech, the Obama’s took part in the inauguration parade that included many marching bands, floats, and the Jesse White Tumblers. The Obama’s also kept with tradition and walked the route for a stretch. After the parade, the Obama’s attended a total of ten inauguration balls. They kicked it off with their first dance as the First Couple to “At Last,” which was performed by Beyonce. The title of the song was fitting for the mood of the day. For many Americans, especially the millions that were in D.C., it was at last. At last an African-American is president. At last change has come to America.
