Mr. Barack Obama is officially the 44th president of the United States. His inauguration Tuesday was the culmination of a historic process and a moment that many had dreamed of but never expected in their lifetime. Mr. Obama takes office amid a landscape of "gathering clouds and raging storms" as he called it in his inauguration speech, but his supporters remain jubilant and even his detractors are hopeful that he can rally his nation to surmount the formidable challenges that lie ahead. He will need all of their help, all his skills and a good dollop of luck to succeed.
Inaugurations are celebrations. They are intended to mark a change of government — the victory of one candidate and his party — but continuity too: The occupants of the White House may change, but the nation — its values, ambitions and goals — endures. For the millions of people who joined the festivities in Washington or watched them on television around the world, the focus was on change: the departure of Mr. George W. Bush and the beginning of a new era in the United States. Mr. Obama acknowledged as much when he proclaimed the beginning of "a new age" for his country.
While inspirational, Mr. Obama's inauguration address will be remembered for being more sober than soaring. He blamed many of the country's problems on "our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age." The most important lines are likely to be his call for "a new era of responsibility — 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. This is the price and the promise of citizenship." Thus, "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America."