admin
Hundreds of thousands gathered at the National Mall in Washington DC yesterday to witness the president take an oath to “protect and defend” the US constitution.
Yesterday’s ceremonies, which consisted of parades and fancy dress balls, marked the beginning of Obama’s second four-year term.
A heavy and steady stream of people flooded the Mall yesterday, stretching out around the reflecting pool. People snapped pictures with a flag-draped Capitol building in the background.
Obama himself arrived at the US Capitol for the beginning of inauguration ceremonies at 11:00am local time (16:00 GMT).
After taking oath, Obama followed the recent tradition of walking at least part of the way back to the White House, while surrounded by crowds.
In a brief ceremony on Sunday, with family gathered in the White House, Obama took the oath of office shortly before noon, as required by law.
With his left hand on a family bible held by first lady Michelle Obama, the 44th president raised his right hand and repeated the time-honoured words, read out by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
The intimate swearing-in met the legal requirement that presidents officially take office on 20 January. That date fell on a Sunday this year, forcing the putting off of the traditional public ceremonies surrounding the start of a president’s term to yesterday, which coincides this year with the birthday of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Obama made no special remarks at Sunday’s ceremony. “I did it,” he said quietly to his youngest daughter, Sasha, before wrapping her in a hug. The oath went smoothly, unlike four years ago, when Roberts made mistakes while trying to recite the oath from memory and had to do it again with Obama later.
Yesterdays events had less of the effervescence of four years ago, when the 1.8 million people packed into central Washington knew they were witnessing history.
“We won’t get the 1.8 million that was estimated to be here four years ago — we’ll get somewhere in the region of 800 000,” reported Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher from the National Mall in Washington DC.
“There might be some disillusionment with Barack Obama, a man who was elected on the promise of hope, to bring both sides together in American politics, but here we are four years on, and Republicans and Democrats have never been more divided.”
Those at the ceremony, however, said they still supported Obama wholeheartedly.
“Being the president of the United States of America is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and he’s faced a lot of adversity, and he came in with a big problem [in the form of the financial crisis], and that problem is going to take more than eight years to overcome,” Tauris Patterson, who was at the ceremony, said. — Al Jazeera
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter