President Obama delivers his inaugural address.
On Monday, President Barack Obama stood before the west steps of the U.S. Capitol building and took the presidential oath of office as part of the 57th presidential inauguration ceremony. Technically, President Obama’s second term began Sunday, when he took the oath at the White House, as the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mandates that the newly elected president assume office before noon on Jan. 20. With that date falling on a Sunday this year, however, the formal inauguration ceremony was moved to Monday.
By taking the oath twice this week, President Obama has now recited the presidential oath of office four times — a feat matched only by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served four terms in office. This historical quirk is due to the fact that during President Obama’s first inauguration, Chief Justice John Roberts incorrectly said the oath for President Obama to repeat, and in an abundance of caution, he was asked to re-administer the oath to the president the following day.
During today’s inauguration, the President was sworn in with his hand on two Bibles — one used by President Abraham Lincoln during his first inauguration and one belonging to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
During his inaugural address (full text), President Obama gave a full-throated defense of progressive ideals and policies, evoking the language of the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident …”) and the Constitution (“We the People …”). He criticized those who call America a “nation of takers” and for those who “mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasonable debate.”
He emphasized the need for a government-supported social safety net, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid: “We recognize that no matter how responsibly we live our lives, any one of us, at any time, may face a job loss, or a sudden illness, or a home swept away in a terrible storm.”
He also mentioned the need to address global climate change and lauded the struggle for civil rights, mentioning Seneca Falls, Selma and Stonewall — milestone events in the women’s rights, African-American rights and gay rights movements, respectively. It was, in fact, the first time gay rights has been mentioned in an inaugural address.
“This is our generation’s task,” he said,” to make these words, these rights, these values — of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — real for every American.”
Following the ceremony outside the Capitol, and a lunch with congressional leaders inside the Capitol rotunda, President Obama and his family proceeded to a reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to watch the inaugural parade, a tradition dating back to George Washington’s first inauguration in 1789, when he was accompanied to the swearing-in ceremony in New York City by local militias. The first time the inaugural parade took its present route from the Capitol Building to the White House in Washington, D.C., was following the inauguration of President Thomas Jefferson in 1805.
After the parade finished Obama went back inside the White House, to prepare for the two official inaugural balls, both to be held in the Washington Convention Center.
Crowds stretch from the Capitol to past the Washington Monument as Barack Obama takes the oath of office for a second term.
