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Obama makes history as first black president
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-21 15:37

"The time has come to set aside childish things," he said, invoking the Bible. "Greatness is never a given. It must be earned."

US President Barack Obama (C) and his wife Michelle (R) are serenaded by Beyonce in their first dance of the night during the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington January 20, 2009. [Agencies] 

Bush, the man who has led the nation the past eight years, hosted the Obamas for coffee in the morning, accompanied them to the Capitol and sat tightlipped in the front row for Obama's swearing-in and speech.

Obama thanked Bush for his service as president and never directly criticized him. But he also repeatedly talked of the need to abandon current practices, whether "the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics," the lack of a watchful enough eye on financial markets, or what he called a false choice between safety and ideals, a reference to brutal interrogation practices and other actions taken by the Bush administration in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come," Obama said.

Afterward, he escorted his predecessor to a helicopter and Bush flew first to Andrews Air Force Base for a private departure ceremony, then on to a welcome rally in Midland, Texas and finally, by nightfall, his ranch near Crawford, Texas. As the architect of two unfinished wars and the man in charge at a time of economic calamity, the now ex-president left Washington under the cloud of approval ratings hovering at historic lows. People in the crowd booed when Bush's image was flashed on jumbotrons and one contingent near the Capitol sang "Na-na-na-na, hey, hey, goodbye" in a jeering farewell.

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Obama Inauguration
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Obama sworn in as US president

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For all the new president's call to joint effort, it is political reality that it will largely be up to Obama himself to meet soaring expectations, both those he has created for himself and those others have placed on him unbidden.

In the Oval Office awaits the workaday, hard-nosed business of the daily governance of a nation of 304 million. And while Washington celebrated, events kept moving: Wall Street slid, news surfaced that US carmaker Chrysler could be purchased in part by Italian auto giant Fiat, and prosecutors at the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sought to suspend all war-crimes trials pending Obama's guidance.

As one of his first official acts, Obama signed a presidential proclamation declaring Tuesday a "National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation." He also officially nominated his Cabinet, except for Commerce and Defense secretaries. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, does not need to be renominated.

The Senate convened to quickly confirm six members of the Cabinet but put off for a day the approval on his choice to be secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, because Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas objected to the unanimous vote.

Congress already has given Obama $350 billion in new financial-industry bailout money and is fast-tracking a massive economic stimulus bill to be worth $825 billion or more. And Bush has ordered 30,000 more US troops to go to Afghanistan this year, adding to 32,000 already there. But these moves are hardly the last word on the big issues of the day.

And some of Obama's attention to those things will undoubtedly be deferred to crises -- a natural disaster, an overseas conflagration -- that can pop onto the scene unexpectedly and consume enormous amounts of White House energy.

His transition also produced some missteps that raised questions about whether Obama's highly disciplined, perfectionist organization that proved brilliant at winning an election will be equally brilliant at governing.

Obama's team overlooked known problems in the backgrounds of two Cabinet nominees, Bill Richardson for Commerce and Timothy Geithner for Treasury. They also flubbed the introduction to Congress of Leon Panetta as CIA director. Obama also was tripped up by controversy surrounding the appointment of his successor in the Senate.

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