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WASHINGTON — Barack Hussein Obama renewed his oath of office at midday Monday, ceremonially marking the beginning of another four years in the White House and firmly embracing a progressive agenda centered on equality and opportunity.
WASHINGTON — Barack Hussein Obama ceremonially opened his second term on Monday with an assertive Inaugural Address that offered a robust articulation of modern liberalism in America, arguing that “preserving our individual freedoms ultimately requires collective action.”
Mr. Obama went out of his way to mention both gay rights and the need to address climate change in a speech that seemed intended to assert his authority over his political rivals and to define his version of modern liberalism after voters returned him to office for a second term.
On a day that echoed with refrains from the civil rights era and tributes to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Obama dispensed with the post-partisan appeals of four years ago to lay out a forceful vision of advancing gay rights, showing more tolerance toward illegal immigrants, preserving the social welfare safety net and acting to stop climate change.
“For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate,” Mr. Obama said. “We must act; we must act knowing that our work will be imperfect.”
At times he used his speech, delivered from the West Front of the Capitol, to reprise arguments from the fall campaign, rebutting the notion expressed by conservative opponents that America risks becoming “a nation of takers” and extolling the value of proactive government in society. Instead of declaring the end of “petty grievance,” as he did taking the oath as the 44th president in 2009, he challenged Republicans to step back from their staunch opposition to his agenda.
Crowds that were expected to reach about 600,000 people assembled on the National Mall in front of the Capitol, eager to witness the start of the president’s second term. Mr. Obama, 51, was formally sworn in during a small private ceremony at the White House residence on Sunday, the date constitutionally mandated for inauguration.
“Progress does not compel us to settle centuries-old debates about the role of government for all time — but it does require us to act in our time,” he said in the 18-minute address. “For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act.”
Following an election dominated by a clash of economic philosophies, Mr. Obama used his second Inaugural Address to renew his demands for a new national focus on the widening gulf between rich and poor. He called it “our generation’s task” to make the values of “life and liberty” real for every American.
Mr. Obama used Abraham Lincoln’s Bible, as he did four years ago, but this time added Dr. King’s Bible as well to mark the holiday honoring the civil rights leader. He became the first president ever to mention the word “gay” in an Inaugural Address as he equated the drive for same-sex marriage to the quests for racial and gender equality.
Four years after Mr. Obama delivered an inaugural speech during a time of economic freefall that limited his ambitions, the roughly 15-minute address on Monday was a call to action on behalf of the middle class by an impatient politician. Mr. Obama declared that the country was “made for this moment,” but he acknowledged that the often divisive and combative politics of today have sometimes fallen short of the size of the country’s problems.
The festivities at the Capitol came a day after Mr. Obama officially took the oath in a quiet ceremony with his family at the White House on the date set by the Constitution. With Inauguration Day falling on a Sunday, the swearing-in was then repeated for an energized mass audience a day later, accompanied by the pomp and parade that typically surround the quadrennial tradition.
“Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life,” he said, perhaps mindful of bruising political fights to come. “It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness.”
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered on a brisk but bright day, a huge crowd by any measure, though far less than the record turnout four years ago. If the day felt restrained compared with the historic mood the last time, it reflected a more restrained moment in the life of the country. The hopes and expectations that loomed so large with Mr. Obama’s taking the office in 2009, even amid economic crisis, have long since faded into a starker sense of the limits of his presidency.
“Progress,” he said, “does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.”
Now 51 and noticeably grayer, Mr. Obama appeared alternately upbeat and reflective. When he re-entered the Capitol at the conclusion of the ceremony, he suddenly stopped his entourage to turn back toward the cheering crowds gathered on the National Mall.
The president’s second inaugural speech was more forceful than his first, putting the nation’s voters and the political establishment on notice that he intends to use his remaining time in office to push for the America he envisions. Drawing a contrast with Mitt Romney’s comment that 47 percent of people are reliant on government, Mr. Obama said the country’s belief in programs like Medicare and Social Security did not sap the country’s spirit and initiative.
“I want to take a look, one more time,” he said. “I’m not going to see this again.”
“They do not make us a nation of takers,” the president declared. “They free us to take the risks that make this country great.”
If the president was wistful, he was firm in his message. He largely eschewed foreign policy except to recommend engagement over war, and instead focused on addressing poverty and injustice at home. He did little to adopt the language of the opposition, as he has done at moments in the past, and instead directly confronted conservative philosophy.
Security in Washington was tight as Mr. Obama, the nation’s first black president, delivered his second Inaugural Address from the Capitol just before noon. Speaking on the day the nation sets aside to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Obama took his oath with his hand on two Bibles: one once owned by Dr. King and another once owned by Abraham Lincoln.
“The commitments we make to each other — through Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security — these things do not sap our initiative; they strengthen us,” he said. “They do not make us a nation of takers; they free us to take the risks that make this country great.”
Mr. Obama honored Dr. King, recalling the time he proclaimed that “our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth.”
The phrase, “nation of takers,” was a direct rebuke to Republicans like Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, last year’s vice-presidential nominee, and several opposition lawmakers took umbrage at the president’s tone.
Mr. Obama made a point to single out gay Americans — the first time that a president has said the word “gay” in an Inaugural Address — comparing their struggle for equality to the fights that African-Americans have waged. Having offered his support last year for same-sex marriage after years of opposition, Mr. Obama used his inaugural speech to embrace the idea that there should be marriage equality.
“I would have liked to see a little more on outreach and working together,” said Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican who lost to Mr. Obama four years ago. “There was not, as I’ve seen in other inaugural speeches, ‘I want to work with my colleagues.’ ”
“If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said. Calling it the current generation’s task to carry on the quest for equality, Mr. Obama urged the nation to make sure that gay men and lesbians were treated equally under the law.
Representative Pete Sessions of Texas, a member of the Republican leadership, said that from the opening prayer to the closing benediction, “It was apparent our country’s in chaos and what our great president has brought us is upheaval.” He added, “We’re now managing America’s demise, not America’s great future.”
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said.
Mr. Obama struck a more conciliatory note during an unscripted toast during lunch with Congressional leaders in Statuary Hall after the ceremony. “Regardless of our political persuasions and perspectives, I know that all of us serve because we believe that we can make America for future generations,” he said.
The president also singled out the issue of climate change, a subject that he raised in his first Inaugural Address but has struggled to make progress on in the face of fierce opposition in Congress and in countries around the world. In his 2009 speech, he warned about environmental threats to the planet; on Monday, he vowed to confront them.
For the nation’s 57th presidential inauguration, a broad section of downtown Washington was off limits to vehicles and a major bridge across the Potomac River was closed to regular traffic as military Humvees were stationed at strategic locations around the city.
“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.”
Joining the president through the long day were the first lady, Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11. The young girls were playful. Malia at one point sneaked up behind her father and cried out, “Boo!” Sasha used a smartphone to take a picture of her parents kissing in the reviewing stand, then made them do it again. Both girls bounced with the martial music at the Capitol.
Mr. Obama left the details of his second-term agenda for his State of the Union speech in three weeks. But he hinted at the two major legislative battles that he has promised to wage: reform of the immigration system and new laws intended to reduce gun violence.
Mr. Obama’s day began with a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, across Lafayette Square from the White House, where the Rev. Andy Stanley told him to “leverage that power for the benefit of other people in the room.” At the Capitol, Myrlie Evers-Williams, the civil rights leader, delivered the invocation and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir performed the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
In a reference to the gun control debate that he has begun in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Obama said the country must confront the dangers to America’s children.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in at 11:46 a.m. by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. The singer James Taylor then performed “America the Beautiful.”
“Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm,” he said.
At 11:50 a.m., Mr. Obama was sworn in again by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. After the two mangled the 35-word oath four years ago, necessitating a just-in-case do-over the next day, the president and chief justice this time carefully recited the words in tandem without error, although Mr. Obama did swallow the word “states.”
On immigration, he said that “our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity.”
Mr. Obama was more specific in discussing policy than presidents typically are in an Inaugural Address. Particularly noticeable was his recommitment to fighting climate change. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said.
Mr. Obama spent little time laying out his vision for foreign policy, even as upheaval around the world suggests that he will spend much of his second four years dealing with questions of security and stability across the globe.
He referred only implicitly to terrorism, the issue that has so consumed the nation for the past decade, but offered a more inward-looking approach to foreign policy, saying that “enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.” He also talked of overhauling immigration rules so “bright young students and engineers are enlisted in our work force, rather than expelled from our country.”
To the world’s leaders, Mr. Obama pledged to be “forever vigilant against those who would do us harm.” But he also said the country would show “the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully — not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.”
For a president who opposed same-sex marriage as recently as nine months ago, the speech was a clear call for gay rights, as he noted the journey “through Seneca Falls and Selma and Stonewall,” symbolically linking seminal moments in the struggles for equal rights for women, blacks and gay men and lesbians.
Shortly after Mr. Obama’s address, Republicans offered him their congratulations, while expressing hopes for working together in the difficult negotiations that loom in the weeks ahead.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law — for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said.
“The president’s second term represents a fresh start when it comes to dealing with the great challenges of our day; particularly, the transcendent challenge of unsustainable federal spending and debt,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said in a statement. “Republicans are eager to work with the president on achieving this common goal, and we firmly believe that divided government provides the perfect opportunity to do so.”
The expanse between the Capitol and the Washington Monument was filled with supporters, many of them African-Americans attending only the second inauguration of a black president. As large TV screens flickered in and out and the audio often warbled, the ceremony was difficult to follow for many braving the Washington chill.
At a luncheon with Congressional leaders in the Capitol, Mr. Obama sounded more humble, saying that anyone who occupies the White House understands that a president’s power is limited by the help he receives from partners in governing.
The speech was followed by song, poem and benediction from Kelly Clarkson, Richard Blanco, the Rev. Luis Leon and Beyoncé. The president and first lady got out of their motorcade twice to walk stretches along Pennsylvania Avenue. Mr. Biden and Jill Biden did as well, and the vice president greeted bystanders with fist-pumping gusto.
“The longer you are there the more humble you become, and the more mindful you are that it is beyond your powers individually to move this great country,” Mr. Obama said.
The two families then settled into the specially built bulletproof reviewing stand to watch the parade. Mr. Obama, who often uses Nicorette to tame an old smoking habit, was spotted chewing as the bands marched past.
Saying there are “profound differences in this room,” the president nonetheless asserted that “I’m confident that we can act in a way at this moment that makes a difference for our children and our children’s children.”
In the evening, the Obamas attended two official inaugural balls, down from 10 four years ago. The president, in white tie, danced with the first lady, in a custom Jason Wu ruby chiffon and velvet gown, to Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” performed by Jennifer Hudson.
At 3:46, Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, got out of the presidential limousine to stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue. People in the crowd lining the road roared their approval as the president and the first lady waved in their direction.
Reporting
was contributed by Jeremy W. Peters, Michael D. Shear, Jennifer Steinhauer and Jonathan Weisman.
The president and Mrs. e Obama started the morning at a church service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, just across Lafayette Square from the White House. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, joined the first couple at the service.
During the service, the Rev. Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., said Mr. Obama should be called “pastor in chief” for his role in soothing the nation after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. He also talked about what people should do in a position of power.
“You leverage that power for the benefit of other people in the room,” Mr. Stanley said, adding that he prayed that Mr. Obama would “continue to leverage this influence for the sake of our nation and the sake of the world.”
Later, the president’s personal Twitter account sent out a message from Mr. Obama: “I’m honored and grateful that we have a chance to finish what we started. Our work begins today. Let’s go. -bo.”
When the presidential limousines returned to the White House from the church service, Malia Obama, 14, sneaked up to surprise her father, shouting “Boo!” as he emerged. “You scared me!” he told her, according to reporters who witnessed the exchange.
Mr. Obama’s motorcade rolled slowly along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol just before 11 a.m., prompting cheers of “Obama!” from crowds lined up along the road. At the same time, members of Mr. Obama’s cabinet began assembling in the bleachers behind the president’s lectern.
Later in the day, after the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue, celebrations are scheduled to continue at two official inaugural balls in Washington’s sprawling convention center, with performances by musical stars like Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. Beyoncé sang the national anthem on Monday afternoon.
As people started gathering for the inauguration, some chose to start the day at the monument to Dr. King.
“It’s not a novelty this time,” said Holly Wieland, 57, of Reston, Va., who also attended President Obama’s first inauguration. “It’s like the first time you say ‘maybe it’s an aberration.’ But it’s for real now.”
Four years ago, a huge crowd of about 1.8 million people jammed into the grassy area between the Capitol and the Washington Monument as Mr. Obama hailed the choice of “hope over fear.” That day, the new president declared the country to be “in the midst of crisis,” citing the economic collapse that was still unfolding and wars that continued to rage in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“In this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words,” Mr. Obama said in his 18-and-a-half minute speech in 2009. “With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.”
As he delivers his second Inaugural Address, Mr. Obama is presiding over an economy that has improved and warfare that has receded. But the world remains a dangerous place, the economy is still fragile, and many of the gauzy promises of action and progress from his first address have given way to the cold realities of politics and compromise and bitter gridlock.
After taking his first oath, the new president proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.” And he predicted that his election was a signal to the cynics in America, who he said did not understand that “the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”
But in the wake of a cliffhanger tax deal and facing more fiscal showdowns with a Republican-led House in the coming weeks, Mr. Obama continues to struggle to deliver on the promise he made in his first inaugural speech to bring a new, more united kind of politics to Washington.
That promise will be tested again soon as Mr. Obama seeks to push a new agenda through Congress. That agenda will include the biggest push for gun control legislation in a generation and a revamping of the nation’s immigration system that he hopes will give millions of illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship.
The president has already unveiled his proposals to reduce gun violence amid fierce opposition from gun owners, the National Rifle Association and many Republican lawmakers. Aides say Mr. Obama will soon begin the immigration fight as well, perhaps as soon as next month, when he delivers his State of the Union speech.
Mr. Obama used his first Inaugural Address to foreshadow a foreign policy agenda that he pledged would be different from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. He rejected what he called the false choice between “our safety and our ideals.”
In the speech in 2009, the president spoke directly to the nation’s adversaries, warning terrorists that “we will defeat you,” telling dictators that “we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” and reaching out to the Muslim world by saying that the United States sought “a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
As he enters his second term, Mr. Obama has taken the fight to Al Qaeda, killing its leader, Osama bin Laden, and using drones to target the ranks of its top members. The United States has left Iraq and is exiting the decade-long war in Afghanistan.
But Iran remains unwilling to “unclench” its fist as it continues developing what Western nations believe is a nuclear weapons program. Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has made more difficult Mr. Obama’s promise of a new way forward with the Muslim world. And the threat of terrorism remains in places like Algeria, where Islamists held hostages just days before Mr. Obama’s inauguration.
Before sunrise Monday, Washington’s subway, which opened an hour early, at 4 a.m., began filling up as people made the ride into the city’s downtown area in the hopes of getting a good spot from which to view Mr. Obama’s swearing-in and the afternoon parade.
Several subway stops were closed or restricted as thousands of police officers, many from surrounding states, enforced a secure perimeter that extended from the White House to the Capitol. Buses were parked across some streets to block access by automobiles, and fences created checkpoints for pedestrians. Military vehicles idled at other intersections.
The early-morning temperature was slightly above freezing, a welcome relief for the president and his wife, who braved temperatures that hovered in the high 20s on Inauguration Day four years ago.
By the time Mr. Obama takes the ceremonial oath on Monday, he will be 24 hours into his second term. He will also have taken the oath four times, matching the record set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but for different reasons.
Mr. Obama took the oath twice in 2009, first in front of the public on Jan. 20, and then again on the next day after White House lawyers concluded that having stumbled through it the first time, he should do it again “out of an abundance of caution.”
This year, he was to take it twice again because the official start of his second term landed on Sunday. The Constitution says the president’s term expires on Jan. 20 at noon.
