WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama launched his second term Monday by calling on the nation to live up to its founding ideals and for Americans to fulfill their citizenship by participating in the process to bring needed change.
In becoming the 17th U.S. president to deliver a second inaugural address, Obama invoked the country's history of facing hardship in citing the chronic federal deficit, rising health care costs, climate change and equal rights as continuing challenges to be faced.
"We are made for this moment, and we will seize it -- so long as we seize it together," Obama said at the U.S. Capitol as flag-waving celebrants thronged the National Mall for the 57th presidential inauguration.
Before the speech, the nation's first African-American president and Vice President Joe Biden took their oaths of office for the second time in two days. Later Monday, Obama will lead the traditional parade up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and attend two official inaugural balls.
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Amid the pomp and ceremony, with heralding trumpets announcing the arrival of dignitaries and red, white and blue bunting festooned throughout central Washington, the event symbolized American democracy with a peaceful extension of power based on last November's election that returned Obama to the White House.
Americans, Obama said in concluding the roughly 2,000-word address, "have the power to set this country's course." He urged people to fulfill their citizenship by meeting "the obligation to shape the debates of our time -- not only with the votes we cast, but with the voices we lift in defense of our most ancient values and enduring ideals."
While focusing on broader themes of democracy and citizenship, Obama referred to some specific issues facing the country after his first four years in power.
He sounded themes from his re-election campaign last year, saying Americans understand that "our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it."
The nation faces "hard choices" to reduce its chronic federal deficits and the costs of health care," Obama said, "but we reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future."
Unlike the election campaign, Obama made a direct reference to climate change, saying the nation would "respond to the threat ... knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations."
He made made a reference to gun control in saying that the nation needed to ensure that "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."
Obama also said Americans "still believe that enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war," pledging to "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."
The loudest cheer came when Obama said the nation's journey remained incomplete "until our wives, our mothers, and daughters can earn a living equal to their efforts," and "until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law."
Monday's ceremony followed a private swearing-in on Sunday at the White House to satisfy the constitutional obligation of taking the oath of office on January 20.
At the public celebration, two former presidents, Cabinet officials, Supreme Court justices, members of Congress and other dignitaries filled the temporary facade on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.
Not in attendance was Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, the designated "survivor" for the event.
Obama begins the second half of his presidency with the opportunity to make it more historic but facing some of the same challenges that he struggled with in the first four years.
He hosted congressional leaders from both parties for tea on Monday morning, and will take part in a traditional lunch with them after his inauguration speech.
On the Mall, Carlos Arieta and his wife, Sharon, took in the scene after driving from Atlanta to witness history. The former Washington residents said it was their first inauguration in person.
Surprised by the throngs gathered a few hours before the speech on a clear morning with temperatures just above freezing, Arieta said "it's nice to see all the different kinds of people."
A new CNN/ORC International poll released Monday indicated less excitement this time than four years ago, when nearly two million people crowded the Mall despite frigid weather for Obama's historic first inauguration.
In January 2009, nearly seven in 10 Americans questioned in a CNN survey said they were thrilled or happy that Obama was about to take office. Now, according to the new, that number is down 18 points, to 50%.
Back then, six
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