BARACK OBAMA INAUGURATES HIS SECOND TERM
US President Barack Obama inaugurated his second term on January 21, 2013 with an ardent call for unity, but warned his foes that their absolutism must not thwart action on climate, immigration and gun control.
Obama was publicly sworn in for another four White House years before a flag-waving crowd of an estimated one million, and then delivered an inaugural address in which poetic power veiled clear signs of a liberal governing agenda.
"We do not believe that in this country freedom is reserved for the lucky, or happiness for the few," Obama said on January 21, from the Stars and Stripes-draped West Front of the US Capitol building, the epicenter of America's political divides.
The President repeatedly used the 'We the People' preamble to the US constitution to suggest how to reconcile America's founding truths and the current discord and dysfunction of its embittered political system. "Decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay," said Obama, flexing the freedom of a leader, who no longer needs to face voters.
However, he sketched over foreign policy, disdaining 'perpetual war' and promising diplomatic engagement backed with military steel-without dwelling on specific crises like Iran.
Earlier, in the briefest ceremony on January 20, 2013, with family gathered in the White House, Obama took the oath of office shortly before noon, as required by law.
The intimate swearing in met the legal requirement that presidents officially take office on January 20. Because that date fell on a Sunday this year, the traditional public ceremonies surrounding the start of a President's term were put off to Monday (Jan. 21, 2013) which coincides this year with the birthday of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King. The oath of office was administered by US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
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