American politics will never be the same as Barack Obama becomes 44th President of the United States

Inauguration Day January 20, 2009 will live long in the memory of people of the American people. In particular, it was a day of unparalleled emotion and joy for tens of millions of African-Americans who lived to see the day when their most illustrious son was sworn into office as president of the United States. Only slightly less was it a cause for celebration among hundreds of millions of the underprivileged all over the world.

Even after Barack Hussein Obama’s sweeping victory in the presidential election in November 2008, many people waited with bated breath for him to take the oath of office. Less than a year back when he launched his candidature as the Democratic Party's nominee, few thought that he would be able to defeat the seasoned campaigner Hillary Clinton in the primaries. When he succeeded in achieving the near impossible, people still remained skeptical that he would be able to defeat John McCainJohn McCain.

Having reached the pinnacle against all odds, Barack Hussein Obama must now deliver on his promise to bring decisive change for the better, for his country and for the world. Obama’s inaugural address may not have sounded as eloquent as his speech on race relations at Philadelphia last March or his speech at Chicago in November after he had won the election. He deliberately understated the theme of race, which is understandable because he is President of all Americans. Obama referred only in passing to a small village where his father was born, and about people who endured the lash of the whip. But what a powerful image it evokes!

Some observers have pointed out that Obama’s address had no memorable phrase comparable to the one or two famous and oft quoted phrases in the inaugural addresses of John F. Kennedy or Franklin Delano RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt.

Yet when one reads the text of his address in cold print, one is overwhelmed by the wisdom contained in its measured sentences. Barack Hussein Obama has indeed captured the state of the union. The measures he has outlined are the need of the hour, for his country and for the world, as listed below.

America, he said, was in the midst of a war against terrorists, while its economy was in really bad shape owing to greed, irresponsibility, and “collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

Health care had become too costly, schools were deficient, and the way America consumed energy strengthened its adversaries and threatened the planet’s ecology. Confidence had been sapped leading to a loss of faith in America’s ability to cope. Obama promised that the challenges “will be met.”

Reminiscent of Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill’s oratory after the fall of France in 1940, Obama asked the people to eschew the easy road, but to follow the example of those who “traveled across oceans in search of a new life… (and) toiled in sweatshops and settled the West, endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.”

Obama also invoked the sacrifices of those who fought and died in Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Obama promised that “We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality...... and lower its costs. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age.”

Obama asked the people to think big because stale political arguments no longer applied. The question was not whether “government is too big or too small, but whether it works, whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”

Praising the free market Obama warned “without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control.”

Obama rejected the legacy of his predecessor of placing safety before ideals, which led to grave abuses of human rights. “Our founding fathers faced with perils that we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations.”

Power alone could not protect America, nor did it entitle the government to do as it pleased. Obama promises “We'll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard- earned peace in Afghanistan.”

To terrorists: "Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken. You cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you."

In a bold move to include atheists, Obama asserted that America was “a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.”

To the Muslim world, Obama promised a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To the people of poor nations, he pledged economic support to make life better for them.

He ended his address by invoking the words of George Washington during the American Revolution when the troops had to endure the bitter cold of Valley Forge, out in the open, as an inspiration to deal with the present crisis.

"Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."