Obama: We must change with the world

President Barack Obama signalled a decisive break with the Bush years on Tuesday, vowing a “new era of responsibility” in which he would rebuild the economy and restore America’s standing in the world.

Moments after taking the oath of office to become the 44th US president, Mr Obama declared the country “ready to lead again” and set out policies on issues ranging from the economy to climate change and the struggle against Islamist extremism.


“The world has changed, and we must change with it,” he told an exuberant crowd of hundreds of thousands gathered in Washington’s National Mall to mark the inauguration of the country’s first African-American president. “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

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In depth: The Obama inauguration - Jan-20A greeting of biblical proportions - Jan-21Chrystia Freeland: Collective euphoria - Jan-20‘We are ready to lead once more’ - Jan-20Video: Lionel Barber on Obama’s speech - Jan-20Edward Luce: A bleak diagnosis - Jan-20In a gesture of unity, Mr Obama and former president George W. Bush embraced at the end of the ceremony, before the new president accompanied his predecessor to the helicopter that took him from the political scene.

But the new president made clear he was setting a very different political agenda from Mr Bush. He declared: “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works.”

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Speaking as the US faces its most serious recession for decades, Mr Obama said the crisis and attendant “sapping of confidence across our land” were “a consequence of greed and irresponsibility” and a “collective failure to make hard choices” and prepare for a new age. His speech explicitly made the case for his plans for a huge economic recovery package – priced at $825bn – and Mr Obama warned that although the market’s power “to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched ... without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control”.

In an allusion to recent US economic conduct and its role in the world he said: “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility ... we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world ... We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.”

In one of a series of allusions to the Bush administration’s “war on terror”, Mr Obama said: “As for our common defence, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake.”

While stressing that America “would not apologise” for its values and way of life or waver in its fight against terrorism, the president said the country would work with “old friends and former foes”.

He added: “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” He proclaimed that US “power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please”.

Making an implicit reference to Bush climate policy, Mr Obama added: “We will restore science to its rightful place.”

Mr Obama, who takes office with record popularity ratings in the US and in the world, aimed much of the address at his global audience, emphasising co-operation rather than Mr Bush’s clarion call of free elections.

The only unsettling moment on a triumphant day for Mr Obama came when Edward Kennedy, the senator who had an operation for a brain tumour last year, suffered a seizure at lunch in the Capitol building, although he was later said to be recovering.

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