Barack Hussein Obama takes oath as 44th US President

[moonjee06]

Barack Hussein Obama takes oath as 44th US President
WASHINGTON: Amid high expectations of a change in some controversial policies pursued in the last eight years, Barack Hussein Obama assumed power on Tuesday as the first ever African-American of the United States. US Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administered the oath of office to Barack Obama.

Crowds streamed into the U.S. capital, jamming subway cars and packing the National Mall from the Capitol building to the Washington Monument when President-elect Barack Obama came to be sworn-in.

For weeks, officials urged people to arrive early for the historic inauguration of the first black U.S. president and throngs of revelers heeded that advice, streaming onto the Mall hours before daybreak.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered near the parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue, occasionally erupting in spontaneous cheers and chants of “open the gates!â€￾

The large crowds made it difficult for many to figure out where checkpoints into the secure area were. Police projected that crowds were ranging between 2 and 3 million for the inauguration.

Attendance topped the 1.2million people who were at Lyndon Johnson's 1965 inauguration, which remained the largest crowd the National Park Service, had on record.

The unprecedented enthusiasm on the historic occasion both domestically and globally rests on the 47-year old Obama’s campaign promises to set America in a new direction aimed at restoring its prestige that especially suffered in the aftermath of the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

On top of the legal, moral and political questions connected to the two wars, US economic recession is bound to test Obama’s skills in the backdrop of the Bush Administration’s unpopular policies.

Vice President-elect Joseph Biden, who recently visited Pakistan and Afghanistan, will also take oath of office.