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January 21. 2009
Page A3
President Obama! Historic journey begins
continued
front Front
Sen. Edw ard M. Kennedy, a leg
endary D em ocrat w ho is suffer
ing from brain cancer He suffered
an apparent seizure at a Senate
luncheon in honor o f Obam a.
"This is a joyous tim e but it's also
a sobering tim e," O bam a said.
"And my prayers are with him and
his fam ily and (K ennedy's w ife)
Vicki."
As K ennedy was put into an
am bulance, he told Senate col
league Chris Dodd, D -C o n n ,"I'll
be OK, I'll see you later,'1 accord
ing to Dodd.
O bam a wove a thread o f per
sonal responsibility and account
ability through his inaugural ad
dress. He spoke o f a ' new era ol
responsibility" and alluded to the
inability— or unw illingness— of
A m ericans to adjust to the pass
in g o f an in d u s tr ia l- b a s e d
econom y. "O ureconom y is badly
w eak en ed , a c o n seq u e n ce o f
greed and irresponsibility on the
part o f som e, but also our collec
tive failure to m ake hard choices
and prepare the nation for a new
age," he said.
A fter four hours o f pom p and
cerem ony at the Capitol. O bam a
and his wife, M ichelle, rode in a
tall, heavily armored Cadillac lim
ousine along the 1.5 mile parade
route to the W hite House. There
w as a heavy police and military
presence along the way, and thou
sands o f onlookers w aving from
the side.
T w o years after beginning his
im p ro b ab le quest as a little-
know n, first-term Illinois senator
with a foreign-sounding name,
O bam a moved into the Oval O f
fice as the nation's fourth-young-
est president, at 47, and the first
A fric an -A m erica n , a b a rrie r
breaking achievem ent believed
im possible by generations o f m i
norities.
He said it was a m om ent to
recall "that all are equal, all are free
and all deserve a chance to pur
sue their full m easure o f happi
ness." In another raciahefercnce.
he paid tribute to w orkers in the
In his inaguration speech, President Barack Obama declares the nation must choose ‘hope over fear' and ‘unity of purpose over conflict and discord.'
Spectators wave flags as they wait on the National Mall on the morning o f the inauguration of
Barack Obama as the 44th president o f the United States at his inauguration ceremony in
Washington, D.C.
cratic era — with O bam a allies in
charge o f both houses o f C on
gress — ends eight years o f Re
publican control o f the W hite
H ouse by Bush, w ho leaves
W ashington as one o f the nation's
m ost u n p o p u lar and div isiv e
presidents, the architect o f two
unfinished wars and the man in
charge at a tim e o f econom ic ca
lamity that swept away many
A m ericans' jo b s, savings and
homes.
O bam a called for a political
truce in W ashington to end "the
petty grievances and false prom
ises, the recrim inations and worn-
out dogm as, that for far too long
have strangled our politics."
He said that all Americans have
roles in rebuilding the nation by
renew ing the traditions o f hard
work, honesty and fair play, toler
ance, loyalty and patriotism.
W ith the econom y in a long
and deepening recession, O bam a
said it was tim e for swift and bold
action to create new jobs and lay
a foundation for growth. C on
gressional D em ocrats have read
ied an $825 billion stim ulus plan
o f tax cuts and spending for roads,
bridges, schools, electric grids
and other projects.
C ontradicting the objections
of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton
to big governm ent, O bam a said,
"The question we ask today is
not w hether our governm ent is
too big or too small, but whether
it works."
After the ceremony, O bam a
and his wife escorted Bush and
his wife to a helicopter on the East
Front o f the Capitol for the trip to
nearby Andrews Air Force Base
and a flight back home to Texas.
In his remarks, O bam a took
continued
who seek to sow conflict, or blame
their society's ills on the W est —
know that your people will judge
you on what you can build, not
w hat you destroy."
"To those who cling to pow er
through corruption and deceit
and the silencing o f dissent, know
that yon are on the w rong side of
history, but that we will extend a
With old friends and former
foes, we will work tirelessly to
lessen the nuclear threat, and
roll back the specter o f a
warming planet.
1
-PresidentBarackObama
past who "endured the lash o f the
w hip and plow ed the hard earth."
O bam a’s election was cheered
around the world as a sign that
Am erica will be more em bracing,
more open to change. "To the
M uslim world," O bam a said, "we
seek a new way forward, based on
mutual interest and mutual re
spect."
Still, he bluntly w arned, "To
those leaders around the globe
hand if you are willing to unclench
your fist," O bam a said in his ad
dress, w hich ran 18 1/2 minutes.
A m ighty chorus o f cheers
erupted as he stepped to the inau
gural platform, a midday sun warm-
ing the crow d that had w aited for
hours in the cold. There were
som e boos when Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney came onto
the platform.
The daw n o f the new Demo-
Mayor Battles
Sex Scandal
A contrite M ayor Sam Adams
has apologized to Portland for
lying about a sexual relationship
with a teenage male but asked the
city to consider it an anom aly in
two decades o f public service.
He held a press conference
T uesday and said he had no plans
to resign.
But under questioning, he said
that he would resign if, as he put
it, "it were no longer in the city's
best interests that I stay."
W hile running for mayor, the
openly gay Adams denied a 2005
sexual relationship with Beau
Breedlove o f Salem.
He says the relationship was
legal — Breedlove had turned 18
— but inappropriate.
A dam s first met Breedlove
when Breedlove was a 17-year-
old aide at the Oregon Legisla
ture."
"I should have been honest at
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Sam Adams
the time when this first surfaced
in 2007. But I didn't believe that
given the way that rumors were
being spread about w hether I
had broken the law by having sex
with a m inor that people would
believe me," A dam s said.
Lets turn the answers on.
I
on page AI2