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Obama sworn in as 44th President, first black to lead US

In a defining moment in US history, Barack Hussein Obama has been sworn in as the country’s 44th and the first black President at a 150 million dollar extravaganza watched by some two million people with a blunt message to terrorists all over the world–”we will defeat you.”

Climaxing the unlikeliest of journeys to the White House, the 47-year-old African-American who has raised unprecedented expectations worldwide was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice John G Roberts Jr on a chilly morning at 12:06 PM (2236 IST ), 12 minutes behind schedule, on the steps of the West Front of the Capitol Hill where the US Congress sits.

” …for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us and we will defeat you,” Obama told citizens of his country hungry for change after George W Bush’s divisive wars in two distant lands and the economic troubles that shook the country and the rest of the world.
The huge crowd from across America and many from outside lapped up every idea that the charismatic Democrat propounded in his tryst with history during his 20-minute address after he took oath.

In an apparent reference to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama said,” our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred”.

Conscious of the anti-American sentiments in some parts of the world, he reached out to the Muslim world saying the US seeks a new way forward based on “mutual interest and mutual respect.”
Having come to power with a message of hope and promise of change, Obama said the nation is in the “midst of a crisis” and urged people to usher in an “era of responsibility.”

“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America–they will be met,” Obama said.

Shattering racial barriers as the first Afro-American head of America, Obama, the son of a black Kenyan and white mother from Kansas, took his oath placing hands on the same Bible used at the 1861 inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, whose Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery.

Obama assumed office nearly 11 weeks after winning the November 4 Presidential elections defeating the Republican candidate John McCain.

Significantly before Obama, a president had never been sworn in by a chief justice he voted against. Indian Ambassador to the US Ronen Sen was among those present at the costliest inaugurals estimated to have cost 170 million dollars.

Obama told the world community that “America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.”

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Obama sworn in as 44th President, first black to lead US

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