Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama took the oath of office from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at the official swearing-in ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House on Sunday.
WASHINGTON — With only his family nearby, President Obama was sworn into office in the White House before noon on Sunday in advance of Monday’s public pomp, the private moment forced by a rare quirk of the constitutional calendar but appropriately capturing the downsized expectations for his second term.
Even the Monday festivities, with the traditional inaugural parade, balls and not least the re-enactment outside the Capitol of Mr. Obama’s swearing-in, will be less spectacular than four years ago, when the new president embodied hope and change for most Americans at a time of global economic crisis and two wars. This year fewer parties are planned, and fewer people are expected to swarm the National Mall.
The private but official swearing-in of the 44th president at 11:55 a.m. was just the seventh such event in history to be held before the public ceremony, and the first since Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural, each one occurring because the constitutionally mandated date for the inauguration fell on a Sunday. Recorded and televised minutes later, the simple scene suggested a couple marrying before a justice of the peace, with a big ceremony and party planned for later.
Only Michelle Obama, holding her family Bible, and the couple’s daughters, Malia and Sasha, stood beside Mr. Obama, in the grand Blue Room as he recited the oath specified in the Constitution and again administered to him by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
The chief justice administered the oath faithfully and Mr. Obama repeated it accurately, unlike four years earlier, when Mr. Roberts inverted a few words during the public swearing-in, Mr. Obama echoed the errors, and the oath had to be repeated in private later. The chief justice, who had relied on his famously prodigious memory in 2009, this time took no chances: He read the oath from a printed text.
After they finished, Justice Roberts congratulated Mr. Obama, who thanked him twice as the two shook hands. Mr. Obama next embraced his wife and daughters in turn. His younger daughter, Sasha, said, “Good job, Daddy,” and he replied “I did it!” only to have her joke, in reference to the problem four years earlier, “You didn’t mess up.” Mr. Obama laughed as he turned to the pool of reporters and about a dozen relatives, saying, “Thank you, everybody” before exiting the room.
Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in earlier at his residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, using the same 19th-century family Bible he has used in every swearing-in ceremony since he entered the Senate in 1973.
At Mr. Biden’s request, the oath was delivered by Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. He was surrounded by family members, including his wife, Jill.
Afterward, Mr. Biden shook the justice’s hand, turned to a large audience of family, friends and close political associates, and expressed his warm thanks. Justice Sotomayor, he noted, was due in New York and had a car waiting to take her to Union Station. “Madame Justice, it’s been an honor, a great honor,” he said.
Mr. Biden then left for Arlington National Cemetery, where he joined President Obama in laying a wreath before the Tomb of the Unknowns.
The president and his family later traveled to Washington to the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, an historic church with a long record of activism against racism — it once harbored runaway slaves — to worship and to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The federal holiday honoring Dr. King coincides this year with Inauguration Day.
The congregation was enthusiastic, according to pool reports, and the sermon ended with a boisterous call and response of “Forward” – the president’s one-word campaign slogan.
These events took place mostly out of view of the hundreds of thousands of Americans, foreign visitors and dignitaries who have poured into Washington to be a part of the second inauguration of the nation’s first African-American president, a more restrained affair than four years ago but still a resonant marker in the nation’s history.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: January 20, 2013
A previous version of this article misstated the month that Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated. It was March, not January.
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