Obama takes oath for 2nd term

US President Barack Obama takes the oath of office from US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as first lady Michelle Obama holds the bible in the Blue Room of the White House in Washington yesterday.Photo: AFP

President Barack Obama took the oath of office yesterday to begin a second term threatened by strife at home and abroad and amid inaugural rituals lacking the hope and historic promise of 2009.
Obama, with a slight smile, took the oath at an intimate, private ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House lasting less than a minute, raising his right arm and placing his left hand on a family Bible.
The president solemnly swore to "faithfully execute the office of President of the United States" and to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God."
Chief Justice Roberts, who stumbled when swearing in Obama to open his first term in 2009, read each line of the oath out loud, before the president repeated words first intoned by George Washington, 224 years ago.
After the ceremony, Obama hugged his wife, and children Malia, 14 and Sasha, 11 before quipping: "I did it" to his youngest daughter.
Obama will take the oath of office for a second time at a time-honored outdoor public ceremony at the US Capitol on Monday.
Vice President Joe Biden was sworn in before his boss at an early morning ceremony at his official residence, before the two laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Ceremony.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor -- picked by Obama to be the first Hispanic judge to sit on the top court in his first term -- made her own slice of history by leading Biden as he took the oath.
Obama, 51, will embark on a second term at a time of deep partisan division in Washington, and will face foreign crises testing his legacy, including Iran's nuclear program and resurgent Islamist militancy in North Africa.
Senior aide David Plouffe said the president would use his second inaugural address before an expected 500,000 plus crowd -- much smaller than in 2009 -- to stress the national truths Americans share.
Obama's second inauguration, which comes courtesy of an election win over Republican Mitt Romney in November, lacks the historical resonance of January 20, 2009, when he was sworn in as the first black American president.
Since then, a graying Obama has struggled to accelerate a weak economic recovery, failed to meet hugely elevated expectations for his presidency and waged a political war of attrition with Republicans.
The second term "curse" often strikes: Richard Nixon resigned, Bill Clinton was impeached, George W. Bush's image was shattered by Iraq and Hurricane Katrina and Ronald Reagan's legacy was marred by the Iran-Contra scandal.