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Obama repeats rail trip of Lincoln, talks future

 
By The Associated Press | Published: January 18, 2009    Comment on this article Leave a comment
photo - Malik Phillip, 9, left, and Aja Dye, 8, wait for the arrival of President-elect Barack Obama outside the train station in Wilmington, Del. AP PHOTO
Malik Phillip, 9, left, and Aja Dye, 8, wait for the arrival of President-elect Barack Obama outside the train station in Wilmington, Del. AP PHOTO

WASHINGTON — Invoking hope and history, President-elect Barack Obama rolled into the capital city Saturday pledging to help bring the nation "a new Declaration of Independence” and promised to rise to the times’ stern challenges. He kicked off a four-day inaugural celebration with a rail trip, retracing the path Abraham Lincoln took in 1861.

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INAUGURAL EVENTS

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• Barack Obama appears at the Lincoln Memorial to welcome people to a free concert featuring Garth Brooks, Beyonce Knowles, Bruce Springsteen, U2 and others.


• Reception at the National Museum of the American Indian for Oklahomans at the inauguration, sponsored by Rep. Dan Boren, the Oklahoma State Society and others

MONDAY

Obama participates in community service activities in Washington on Martin Luther King Jr. Day; various balls and parties are scheduled, along with bipartisan dinners for Vice President-elect Joe Biden, former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

TUESDAY


• 10:56 a.m.: Obama takes oath of office; after a 21-gun salute, Obama gives his inaugural address.


• Noon: Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have lunch in U.S. Capitol with members of Congress.


• About 1:30 p.m.: Inaugural parade


• 7 p.m.: Western Inaugural Ball for Oklahoma and 11 other states, Washington Convention Center

WEDNESDAY


• National Prayer Service at the National Cathedral: the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins, a graduate of the Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa and former pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, was chosen to give the sermon. She is the first woman ever to do so at the traditional prayer service.

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Obama began in Philadelphia and ended in Washington.

The president-in-waiting drew on a grand heritage as he appealed "not to our easy instincts but to our better angels,” an echo of Lincoln’s first inaugural address. He took note of the challenges that lie ahead and promised to act with "fierce urgency,” a phrase often used by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Although Obama’s path tracked Lincoln’s and took on the same overtone of high security, it wasn’t the journey of virtual secrecy that the 16th president-elect took so long ago. Lincoln was smuggled under cover of darkness from one train station to another to avoid a feared assassination attempt.

The FBI has been planning for the inauguration since June. A bomb-detecting robot, canisters with hundreds of gallons of water to disrupt a car bomb and other emergency response equipment stretch down a block near the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

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Related Topics: Politics, U.S. Politics, World Politics, U.S. Presidential Inauguration, Government and Politics



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