>>Roberts: Are you prepared
to take the Oath, Senator? >>Obama: I am. >>Roberts: I, Barack Hussein
Obama, do solemnly swear >>Obama: I, Barack Hussein
Obama, do solemnly swear >>Roberts: that I will
execute the office of President to the United States faithfully >>Obama: that I will execute ... >>Roberts: faithfully the office of President of the
United States >>Obama: the office
of the President of the United States faithfully >>Roberts: and will, to
the best of my ability >>Obama: and will, to
the best of my ability >>Roberts: preserve, protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States >>Obama: preserve, protect and defend the Constitution
of the United States >>Roberts: so help you, God. >>Obama: so help me, God. >>Roberts: Congratulations,
Mr. President. [cheers] All the best wishes to you. [cheers] ["Hail to the Chief"
music and 21 gun salute] >>Feinstein: It is my
great personal honor to present the 44th President of these United States,
Barack Obama. [cheers and applause] >>Obama: Thank you. Thank you. My fellow citizens. I stand here today humbled
by the task before us, grateful for the trust
you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices
borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for
his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown
throughout this transition. Forty-four Americans have now
taken the presidential oath. The words have been
spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the
still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath
is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America
has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision
of those in high office, but because We the People have
remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true
to our founding documents. So it has been. So it must be with this
generation of Americans. That we are in the midst of
crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war,
against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened,
a consequence of greed and irresponsibility
on the part of some, but also our collective
failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation
for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs
shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly;
our schools fail too many; and each day brings
further evidence that the ways we use energy
strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet. These are the indicators
of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no
less profound is a sapping of confidence across our
land - a nagging fear that America's decline
is inevitable, and that the next generation
must lower its sights. 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. On this day, we gather because
we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over
conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim
an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the
recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far
too long have strangled our politics. We remain a young nation, but
in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set
aside childish things. The time has come to
reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better
history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble
idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given
promise that all are equal, all are free, and
all deserve a chance to pursue their full
measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness
of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short cuts or
settling for less. It has not been the path
for the faint-hearted - for those who prefer
leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures
of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the
risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some
celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their
labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path
towards prosperity and freedom. For us, they packed up their few
worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in
search of a new life. For us, they toiled in
sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip
and plowed the hard earth. For us, they fought and
died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg, Normandy
and Khe Sahn. Time and again, these men and
women struggled and sacrificed and worked until
their hands were raw so that we might
live a better life. They saw America as
bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions;
greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction. This is the journey
we continue today. We remain the most prosperous,
powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no
less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less
inventive, our goods and services no less needed
than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains
undiminished. But our time of standing pat,
of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant
decisions - that time has surely passed. Starting today, we
must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and
begin again the work of remaking America. For everywhere we look,
there is work to be done. The state of our economy calls
for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not
only to create new jobs, but to lay a new
foundation for growth. We will build the roads and
bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our
commerce and bind us together. We will restore science
to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's
quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun
and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and
run our factories. And we will transform
our schools and colleges and universities to meet
the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do. Now, there are some who question
the scale of our ambitions - who suggest that our system
cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what
this country has already done; what free men and
women can achieve when imagination is
joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage. What the cynics fail
to understand is that the ground has
shifted beneath them - that the stale political
arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not
whether our government is too big or too small, but
whether it works - whether it helps families
find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a
retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes,
we intend to move forward. Where the answer is
no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the
public's dollars will be held to account - to spend
wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business
in the light of day - because only then can we
restore the vital trust between a people and
their government. Nor is the question before us
whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth
and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded
us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin
out of control - the nation cannot prosper long when it favors only
the prosperous. The success of our economy
has always depended not just on the size of our
Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our
prosperity; on the ability to extend opportunity
to every willing heart - not out of charity, but
because it is the surest route to our common good. As for our common defense,
we reject as false the choice between our safety
and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers,
faced with perils that we can scarcely
imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law
and the rights of man, a charter expanded by
the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the
world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all the other
peoples and governments who are watching today,
from the grandest capitals to the small village
where my father was born: know that America is a friend
of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a
future of peace and dignity, and we are ready
to lead once more. [applause] Recall that earlier
generations faced down fascism and communism not just
with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances
and enduring convictions. They understood that our
power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle
us to do as we please. Instead, they knew
that our power grows through its prudent use;
our security emanates from the justness of our cause,
the force of our example, the tempering qualities
of humility and restraint. We are the keepers
of this legacy. Guided by these principles
once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort
- even greater cooperation and understanding
between nations. We will begin to responsibly
leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned
peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former
foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter
of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our
way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and 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. For we know that our patchwork
heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of
Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -
and non-believers. We are shaped by every
language and culture, drawn from every
end of this Earth; and because we have tasted
the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged
from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we
cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall
someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve;
that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity
shall reveal itself; and that America must
play its role in ushering in a new era of peace. To the Muslim world, we
seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest
and mutual respect. To those leaders around the
globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's
ills on the West - know that your people
will judge you on what you can build,
not what you destroy. To those who cling to power
through corruption and deceit and the silencing of
dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history;
but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to
unclench your fist. To the people of poor nations,
we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish
and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies
and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours
that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer
afford indifference to suffering outside
our borders; nor can we consume
the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed,
and we must change with it. As we consider the road
that unfolds before us, we remember with humble
gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour,
patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell
us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington
whisper through the ages. We honor them not only
because they are the guardians of our liberty, but because they
embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater
than themselves. And yet, at this moment - a moment that will
define a generation - it is precisely this spirit
that must inhabit us all. For as much as government
can do and must do, it is ultimately the
faith and determination of the American people upon
which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a
stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who
would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose
their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage
to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's
willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate. Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which
we meet them may be new. But those values upon which
our success depends - honesty and hard work, courage and fair
play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism
- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout
our history. What is demanded then is
a return to these truths. What is required of us now is
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,
firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so
satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all
to a difficult task. This is the price and the
promise of citizenship. This is the source of our
confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to
shape an uncertain destiny. This is the meaning of our
liberty and our creed - why men and women and children of every
race and every faith can join in celebration across
this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago
might not have been served at a local restaurant
can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath. [cheers and applause] So let us mark this day with
remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth,
in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots
huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome
of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these
words be read to the people: "Let it be told to the future
world...that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that
the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger,
came forth to meet it." America. In the face of our
common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us
remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once
more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our
children's children that when we were tested we
refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn
back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the
horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that
great gift of freedom and delivered it safely
to future generations. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless
the United States of America. [cheers and applause]
