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 embracing a progressive agenda centered on equality and opportunity.
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 define his version of modern liberalism, shortly after voters returned him to office for a second term.
“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.”
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.
Following an election dominated by a clash of economic ideas, Mr. Obama used his second Inaugural Address to demand a new national focus on equality and to deplore 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.
The 15-minute address 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.
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.
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.”
Speaking in broad strokes, the president offered the principles that will guide his vision for a second term, vowing to respond to the threat of climate change, maintain economic vitality, protect the poor and defend the country’s people through “strength of arms and rule of law.”
Calling it the current generation’s task to carry on the quest for equality, Mr. Obama urged the nation to make sure that women were paid equally to men and that gay men and lesbians were treated equally under the law.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said.
Mr. Obama compared the struggle for equality of gay men and lesbians 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.
“If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said.
He also directly mentioned 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.
“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.”
Obama Cites Nation’s Ideals in Call to Act
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Obama Cites Nation’s Ideals in Call to Act
