'We are made for this moment'

Enlarge Image

Mary F. Calvert / MCT Tara Raigns of Petersburg, Va., stands on the National Mall to hear Barack Obama speak. (TRIBUNE MEDIA MCT)

WASHINGTON -- Barack Hussein Obama launched his second term as the nation's 44th president Monday, urging an increasingly divided nation to move past polarizing debates and live up to its founding ideals by uniting to solve the country's problems.

"America's possibilities are limitless, for we possess all the qualities that this world without boundaries demands: youth and drive, diversity and openness, an endless capacity for risk and a gift for reinvention," he said on a crisp, sun-filled afternoon. "My fellow Americans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together."

His 18-minute inaugural address -- delivered to millions in person and on televisions across the globe -- offered a clear agenda for his second term, marshalling the federal government to protect the rights of gays and lesbians, combat climate change, provide opportunities for illegal immigrants and help the downtrodden and middle class get a better foothold in a changing and still fragile economy.

A sea of spectators packed the National Mall to watch Obama, 51, sworn into office a few minutes before noon on the west side of the U.S. Capitol, the first Democrat in seven decades to twice win a majority of the popular vote.

First lady Michelle Obama and daughters, Sasha, 11, and Malia, 14, looked on, as did former Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. The two living Republican former presidents didn't attend, the ailing George H.W. Bush and son George W. Bush.

"O-bam-a!" the crowd chanted. "O-bam-a!"

Noticeably greyer than when he first took office, Obama had officially started his second term 24 hours earlier after a brief private ceremony at the White House. Monday's proceedings followed the tradition of delaying the public inauguration a day when the official date prescribed by the Constitution falls on a Sunday.

The nation's 57th inauguration consisted of five days of patriotic parades and fancy balls, solemn prayers and countless receptions for donors and supporters.

"At what place would you wanna be on Inauguration Day?" asked Camille Page of Corona, Calif. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience... I will be proud to tell my grandchildren about it."

Monday's events were jubilant, though they didn't have the same level of excitement as four years ago, when a young senator promising hope and change became the nation's first black president. Officials estimated as many as one million people turned out for the festivities, far short of the nearly two million in 2009 but an above-average audience for a second-term inauguration.

The crowds led to a maze of street closures, clogged subways, heightened security and the National Mall filled with 1,500 portable toilets, five large-screen TVs and 6,000 members of the National Guard in town assisting with crowd control.

After a bitter election and constant clashes on Capitol Hill, Obama used his inaugural address to encourage those with differing views to work together to accomplish something, even if it's not everything.

"For now, decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay," he said. "We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate," the president said. "We must act; we must act knowing that our work will be imperfect."

In his second term, Obama faces a polarized political climate. He must address fiscal issues -- tax revisions and spending cuts -- and pressing international obligations: stopping Iran's nuclear program, navigating an end to the war in Afghanistan and avoiding tensions with China over the administration's "pivot" to Asia. In the weeks since he defeated Republican Mitt Romney, he's already battled with Republicans in Congress over tax increases and spending reductions.

Outlining the nation he envisions, he sounded the themes of his recent campaign as a call for using the federal government to shift the benefits of the country and its economy to the poor and middle class and away from the wealthy.

"We, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it," he said. "We believe that America's prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class."

-- McClatchy Newspapers

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 22, 2013 A8