![]() With his hand on Lincoln's bible, Barack Obama took the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. A new president was sworn in, our country's 44th and the first who is African-American. SIEGEL: Washington, D.C., swollen with well-wishers, a city celebrating despite a daunting array of national crises, was festive witness to history today. Obama’s other priorities for a second term - chiefly addressing illegal immigration and gun violence - likewise will hardly come easy, if at all.From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. Obama passed his signature laws for economic stimulus, expanded health insurance and financial industry regulation, Republicans captured the House majority in a conservative backlash at his midterm and are expected to keep it for his second term, given their success in drawing districts to keep them safe for Republicans. While Democrats controlled Congress for his first two years, when Mr. His challenges ahead are perhaps not so great as then - 779,000 people lost their jobs that January, a one-month record, the financial and auto industries were teetering and millions of Americans were losing homes and savings - but they are nonetheless daunting. Much is changed since January 2009, and much of it not in the way Mr. At a party sponsored by Emily’s List, which helps elect Democratic women who favor abortion rights, the talk was of 2016 - and whether Hillary Rodham Clinton, the departing secretary of state, might run for president.įlags, bunting and red, white and blue lights festooned streets, buildings and grounds, but as usual for such events, also ubiquitous were cement and metal security barriers, along with police and troops on downtown blocks. And they prayed, separately: the Obamas attended services at the 175-year-old Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the enthusiastic congregation engaged in a call-and-response with the pastor evoking the president’s “Forward” campaign slogan the Bidens and their guests celebrated a Mass in the vice-presidential mansion.ĭemocratic women especially were feted. Biden went together to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The private ceremonies were held because, under the Constitution, the two men’s first terms ended at noon on Sunday. Biden attended a party of Democrats from Iowa, the first presidential caucus state. Biden were Democratic dignitaries from the early presidential-nominating states, including Gov. Among the 120 guests who watched Justice Sonia M. Biden is indeed looking beyond the next four years to the 2016 election. at the vice-presidential mansion, while simple, was large enough to suggest that Mr. The next showdown in what has seemed a never-ending loop of fiscal brinkmanship and half-measures is likely to come as soon as next month over spending cuts.īy contrast, the swearing-in hours earlier of Vice President Joseph R. Obama and Republicans in Congress, divided by opposing views on the role of government, are no closer to a budget agreement that would overhaul taxes and costly, fast-growing entitlement programs like Medicare. Obama continues to confront threats around the globe, both from state actors like Iran and North Korea and from Qaeda-inspired extremists seeking to exploit power vacuums in the Mideast and across Africa and Asia.Īt home, the emphasis is on reducing the deficits that piled up because of the economic downturn and the soaring costs of caring for an aging population. The unemployment rate is as high as it was in January 2009, though it is down from the 10 percent peak reached late that year, and there is no consensus with Republicans about additional stimulus measures - or virtually anything else.Īnd as the terrorist attack in Algeria last week illustrated, Mr. ![]() The economy, while recovering steadily, remains fragile. Obama’s second-term challenges are formidable, not least given his ambitious priorities of addressing the national debt, illegal immigration and gun violence.
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