By MICHAEL D. SHEAR
WASHINGTON — Barack Hussein Obama renewed his oath of office at midday Monday, ceremonially marking the beginning of another four years in the White House and calling for “fidelity to our founding principles” while also embracing “new responses to new challenges.”
Mr. Obama went out of his way to mention both gay rights and the need to address climate change in a speech that seemed intended to assert his authority over his political rivals and to define his version of modern liberalism after voters returned him to office for a second term.
“For now decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate,” Mr. Obama said. “We must act; we must act knowing that our work will be imperfect.”
Crowds that were expected to reach about 600,000 people assembled on the National Mall in front of the Capitol, eager to witness the start of the president’s second term. Mr. Obama, 51, was formally sworn in during a small private ceremony at the White House residence on Sunday, the date constitutionally mandated for inauguration.
Following an election dominated by a clash of economic philosophies, Mr. Obama used his second Inaugural Address to renew his demands for a new national focus on the widening gulf between rich and poor. He called it “our generation’s task” to make the values of “life and liberty” real for every American.
Four years after Mr. Obama delivered an inaugural speech during a time of economic freefall that limited his ambitions, the 15-minute address on Monday was a call to action on behalf of the middle class by an impatient politician. Mr. Obama declared that the country was “made for this moment,” but he acknowledged that the often divisive and combative politics of today have sometimes fallen short of the size of the country’s problems.
“Being true to our founding documents does not require us to agree on every contour of life,” he said, perhaps mindful of bruising political fights to come. “It does not mean we all define liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to happiness.”
“Progress,” he said, “does not compel us to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but it does require us to act in our time.”
The president’s second inaugural speech was more forceful than his first, putting the nation’s voters and the political establishment on notice that he intends to use his remaining time in office to push for the America he envisions. Drawing a contrast with Mitt Romney’s comment that 47 percent of people are reliant on government, Mr. Obama said the country’s belief in programs like Medicare and Social Security did not sap the country’s spirit and initiative.
“They do not make us a nation of takers,” the president declared. “They free us to take the risks that make this country great.”
Security in Washington was tight as Mr. Obama, the nation’s first black president, delivered his second Inaugural Address from the Capitol just before noon. Speaking on the day the nation sets aside to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Obama took his oath with his hand on two Bibles: one once owned by Dr. King and another once owned by Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Obama honored Dr. King, recalling the time he proclaimed that “our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on earth.”
Mr. Obama made a point to single out gay Americans — the first time that a president has said the word “gay” in an Inaugural Address — comparing their struggle for equality to the fights that African-Americans have waged. Having offered his support last year for same-sex marriage after years of opposition, Mr. Obama used his inaugural speech to embrace the idea that there should be marriage equality.
“If we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” he said. Calling it the current generation’s task to carry on the quest for equality, Mr. Obama urged the nation to make sure that gay men and lesbians were treated equally under the law.
“Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law,” he said.
The president also singled out the issue of climate change, a subject that he raised in his first Inaugural Address but has struggled to make progress on in the face of fierce opposition in Congress and in countries around the world. In his 2009 speech, he warned about environmental threats to the planet; on Monday, he vowed to confront them.
“We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said. “Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires, and crippling drought, and more powerful storms.”
Mr. Obama left the details of his second-term agenda for his State of the Union speech in three weeks. But he hinted at the two major legislative battles that he has promised to wage: reform of the immigration system and new laws intended to reduce gun violence.
In a reference to the gun control debate that he has begun in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Mr. Obama said the country must confront the dangers to America’s children.
“Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm,” he said.
On immigration, he said that “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.”
Mr. Obama spent little time laying out his vision for foreign policy, even as upheaval around the world suggests that he will spend much of his second four years dealing with questions of security and stability across the globe.
To the world’s leaders, Mr. Obama pledged to be “forever vigilant against those who would do us harm.” But he also said the country would show “the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully — not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.”
Shortly after Mr. Obama’s address, Republicans offered him their congratulations, while expressing hopes for working together in the difficult negotiations that loom in the weeks ahead.
“The president’s second term represents a fresh start when it comes to dealing with the great challenges of our day; particularly, the transcendent challenge of unsustainable federal spending and debt,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said in a statement. “Republicans are eager to work with the president on achieving this common goal, and we firmly believe that divided government provides the perfect opportunity to do so.”
At a luncheon with Congressional leaders in the Capitol, Mr. Obama sounded more humble, saying that anyone who occupies the White House understands that a president’s power is limited by the help he receives from partners in governing.
“The longer you are there the more humble you become, and the more mindful you are that it is beyond your powers individually to move this great country,” Mr. Obama said.
Saying there are “profound differences in this room,” the president nonetheless asserted that “I’m confident that we can act in a way at this moment that makes a difference for our children and our children’s children.”
The president and Michelle Obama started the morning at a church service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, just across Lafayette Square from the White House. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill Biden, joined the first couple at the service.
During the service, the Rev. Andy Stanley of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., said Mr. Obama should be called “pastor in chief” for his role in soothing the nation after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. He also talked about what people should do in a position of power.
“You leverage that power for the benefit of other people in the room,” Mr. Stanley said, adding that he prayed that Mr. Obama would “continue to leverage this influence for the sake of our nation and the sake of the world.”
Later, the president’s personal Twitter account sent out a message from Mr. Obama: “I’m honored and grateful that we have a chance to finish what we started. Our work begins today. Let’s go. -bo.”
When the presidential limousines returned to the White House from the church service, Malia Obama, 14, sneaked up to surprise her father, shouting “Boo!” as he emerged. “You scared me!” he told her, according to reporters who witnessed the exchange.
Mr. Obama’s motorcade rolled slowly along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol just before 11 a.m., prompting cheers of “Obama!” from crowds lined up along the road. At the same time, members of Mr. Obama’s cabinet began assembling in the bleachers behind the president’s lectern.
Later in the day, the Obamas will lead the traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue toward an elaborate reviewing stand constructed in front of the White House. Celebrations are scheduled to continue late into the night at two official inaugural balls in Washington’s sprawling convention center, with performances by musical stars like Alicia Keys, Brad Paisley, Katy Perry, Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. Beyoncé sang the national anthem on Monday afternoon.
As people started gathering for the inauguration, some chose to start the day at the monument to Dr. King.
“It’s not a novelty this time,” said Holly Wieland, 57, of Reston, Va., who also attended President Obama’s first inauguration. “It’s like the first time you say ‘maybe it’s an aberration.’ But it’s for real now.”
Four years ago, a huge crowd of about 1.8 million people jammed into the grassy area between the Capitol and the Washington Monument as Mr. Obama hailed the choice of “hope over fear.” That day, the new president declared the country to be “in the midst of crisis,” citing the economic collapse that was still unfolding and wars that continued to rage in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“In this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words,” Mr. Obama said in his 18-and-a-half minute speech in 2009. “With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.”
As he delivers his second Inaugural Address, Mr. Obama is presiding over an economy that has improved and warfare that has receded. But the world remains a dangerous place, the economy is still fragile, and many of the gauzy promises of action and progress from his first address have given way to the cold realities of politics and compromise and bitter gridlock.
After taking his first oath, the new president proclaimed “an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.” And he predicted that his election was a signal to the cynics in America, who he said did not understand that “the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.”
But in the wake of a cliffhanger tax deal and facing more fiscal showdowns with a Republican-led House in the coming weeks, Mr. Obama continues to struggle to deliver on the promise he made in his first inaugural speech to bring a new, more united kind of politics to Washington.
That promise will be tested again soon as Mr. Obama seeks to push a new agenda through Congress. That agenda will include the biggest push for gun control legislation in a generation and a revamping of the nation’s immigration system that he hopes will give millions of illegal immigrants a path toward citizenship.
The president has already unveiled his proposals to reduce gun violence amid fierce opposition from gun owners, the National Rifle Association and many Republican lawmakers. Aides say Mr. Obama will soon begin the immigration fight as well, perhaps as soon as next month, when he delivers his State of the Union speech.
Mr. Obama used his first Inaugural Address to foreshadow a foreign policy agenda that he pledged would be different from that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. He rejected what he called the false choice between “our safety and our ideals.”
In the speech in 2009, the president spoke directly to the nation’s adversaries, warning terrorists that “we will defeat you,” telling dictators that “we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist,” and reaching out to the Muslim world by saying that the United States sought “a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”
As he enters his second term, Mr. Obama has taken the fight to Al Qaeda, killing its leader, Osama bin Laden, and using drones to target the ranks of its top members. The United States has left Iraq and is exiting the decade-long war in Afghanistan.
But Iran remains unwilling to “unclench” its fist as it continues developing what Western nations believe is a nuclear weapons program. Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa has made more difficult Mr. Obama’s promise of a new way forward with the Muslim world. And the threat of terrorism remains in places like Algeria, where Islamists held hostages just days before Mr. Obama’s inauguration.
Before sunrise Monday, Washington’s subway, which opened an hour early, at 4 a.m., began filling up as people made the ride into the city’s downtown area in the hopes of getting a good spot from which to view Mr. Obama’s swearing-in and the afternoon parade.
Several subway stops were closed or restricted as thousands of police officers, many from surrounding states, enforced a secure perimeter that extended from the White House to the Capitol. Buses were parked across some streets to block access by automobiles, and fences created checkpoints for pedestrians. Military vehicles idled at other intersections.
The early-morning temperature was slightly above freezing, a welcome relief for the president and his wife, who braved temperatures that hovered in the high 20s on Inauguration Day four years ago.
By the time Mr. Obama takes the ceremonial oath on Monday, he will be 24 hours into his second term. He will also have taken the oath four times, matching the record set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but for different reasons.
Mr. Obama took the oath twice in 2009, first in front of the public on Jan. 20, and then again on the next day after White House lawyers concluded that having stumbled through it the first time, he should do it again “out of an abundance of caution.”
This year, he was to take it twice again because the official start of his second term landed on Sunday. The Constitution says the president’s term expires on Jan. 20 at noon.
Source: The New York Times