Obama says 'America's possibilities are limitless'

JULIE PACE,AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) — Assert­ing “America’s pos­si­bil­i­ties are lim­it­less,” Pres­i­dent Barack Obama declared on Mon­day that a decade of war is end­ing and the nation’s econ­omy is recov­er­ing as he launched into a sec­ond term before a flag-waving crowd of hun­dreds of thou­sands on the National Mall.

“My fel­low Amer­i­cans, we are made for this moment, and we will seize it, so long as we seize it together,” Obama said, moments after tak­ing the oath of office on a crisp day in the nation’s capital.

The pres­i­dent didn’t dwell on any first-term accom­plish­ments but looked to hard work ahead in a coun­try still grap­pling with a slug­gish economy.

“We must make the hard choices to reduce the cost of health care and the size of our deficit,” he 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.”

Hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple fanned out across the Mall, and mil­lions more watched on tele­vi­sion, as Obama took the oath of office to begin his sec­ond term.

Sand­wiched between the bruis­ing pres­i­den­tial cam­paign and loom­ing fis­cal fights, Monday’s inau­gural cel­e­bra­tions marked a brief respite from the par­ti­san grid­lock that has con­sumed the past two years.

Stand­ing in front of the flag-bedecked Capi­tol, he implored Wash­ing­ton to find com­mon ground over his next four years. And seek­ing to build on the pub­lic sup­port that cat­a­pulted him to the White House twice, the pres­i­dent said the pub­lic has “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,” Obama said.

Look­ing ahead to his second-term agenda, the pres­i­dent said the nation must “respond to the threat of cli­mate change” and tackle the com­pre­hen­sive immi­gra­tion reform that has eluded Wash­ing­ton for years.

“Our jour­ney is not com­plete until we find a bet­ter way to wel­come the striv­ing, hope­ful immi­grants who still see Amer­ica as a land of oppor­tu­nity,” he said.

Moments ear­lier, Obama placed his hand on two Bibles — one used by the Rev. Mar­tin Luther King Jr. and the other used by Abra­ham Lin­coln — and recited the brief oath of office. Michelle Obama held the Bibles, one on top of the other, as daugh­ters Malia and Sasha looked on.

Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden was also sworn in for his sec­ond term as the nation’s sec­ond in command.

Monday’s oats were purely cer­e­mo­nial. The Con­sti­tu­tion stip­u­lates that pres­i­dents begin their new term at noon on Jan. 20, and in keep­ing with that require­ment, Obama was sworn in Sun­day in a small cer­e­mony at the White House.

Posted by AP News on Jan 21 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.