Hundreds of thousands of visitors are descending on Washington, hoping to see history unveil in front of their eyes on Tuesday, when inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States will take place. An estimated one- to two million people are expected to witness Mr. Obama take the oath of office as the nation's first African-American president.
Obama will use the same Bible Abraham Lincoln used when he took the oath upon at his first inaugural on March 4, 1861. He will place his left hand on the 1,280-page burgundy velvet Bible with gilded edges, raise his right hand, and repeat the words of the oath read by Chief Justice John Roberts.
Back in the old days Lincoln took the oath in the shadow of an unfinished Capitol dome with his right hand on the Bible. He then kissed the book, following a tradition started by George Washington. The Bible, an 1853 Oxford University Press edition, has a red velvet cover with golden trim. It's relatively compact, measuring about 6 inches long, 4 inches wide and less than 2 inches thick.
As for his eagerly anticipated speech, Obama said last week that he has looked to the Lincoln and Kennedy inaugural speeches for inspiration. Kennedy memorably demanded, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." Lincoln sought to bind the wounds of the Civil War "with malice toward none, with charity for all."
Over the decades, indeed, only a few have gained notoriety for the sublimity of their prose, the eloquence of their delivery or the aptness of their message for a concurrent crisis. Widely credited with writing stirring prose and with speaking mellifluously, Barack Obama will get rave reviews even if he reads straight from the Federal Register.
Moreover, given the nation's current economic crisis, Errol Lewis, a columnist for the New York Daily News, was looking for Obama to echo Roosevelt's famous 1933 inauguration address when he said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." But beyond the nation's immediate economic concerns, Obama's inauguration speech with also mark a national milestone: the inauguration of the first African-American president.
Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty told NBC television that officials are ready to handle the huge crowds expected to come into the city to watch Mr. Obama take the oath of office and give his eagerly awaited Inaugural Address. Security is expected to be extremely tight.
The President-Elect made an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center Monday to visit with troops injured in battle. Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden, fresh off a rollicking concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, spent their final day before the inauguration with activities keyed to the celebration of Martin Luther King's life, cut short by an assassin's bullet in 1968.
