Obama’s inauguration was an historical event, even by the standards of US Presidential inaugurations. It was the first time an African American became President of the United States. It also took place in circumstances perhaps as challenging as those of FDR’s or Lincoln’s inaugurations: a nation at war in Afghanistan and Iraq and at the same time in severe economic difficulties. In writing about Clinton’s first inauguration (1993), Philip Hamburger stated that “hope is palpable.” He remembered FDR’s first inauguration, when “FDR’s unforgettable ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself’” led an observer to say “I think we’ll live”
Yesterday Obama stated candidly “That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war… . Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” He called “for a new era of responsibility-- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly.” Although he expressed confidence that if we return to our old values we can overcome these difficulties, he did not promise unconditionally that we would triumph. Instead, he recalled Washington’s statement at Valley Forge and stated “With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come.”
Although statements that we are in a crisis and calls for duty and responsibility don't usually get applauded, perhaps the audience was applauding out of hope for change, both because a black was now President and because he was being honest and calling for responsibility. This is a change from the outgoing Bush administration. As Rupert Cornwell of The Independent (London) concluded, Obama's inaugural address "will be remembered not so much for its oratory, nor even that the man who delivered it was black, but for its honesty (http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/).
