ObamaSwearing President Inauguration -1

I.Obama swearing-in today

President-elect Barack Obama acknowledges the audience as he takes the stage, before introducing Sen. John McCain, at a dinner in Washington. (AP)

WASHINGTON: After all the pre-inauguration glitz and fanfare, the stage is finally set for the solemn swearing- in of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday.

“Anything is possible in America,” declared the man who will be the first-ever African- American at the helm of the world’s most powerful nation at a time when it is faced with its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Obama sought to put out a cheery ‘America will prevail’ message at a star-studded musical extravaganza in his honour at the Lincoln Memorial — the same venue where civil rights leader Martin Luther King delivered his famous ‘I Have A Dream’ speech in 1963.

Half a million people thronged the National Mall as Obama invoked King’s address commenting: “Directly in front of us is a pool that still reflects the dream of a King and the glory of a people who marched and bled so that their children might be judged by their character’s content.” The Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court will administer the oath on the steps of the Capitol at noon (10.30 pm IST) in front of an estimated two million people. Obama will deliver his inaugural address soon thereafter.

Aides said the address would lay stress on the twin themes of responsibility and accountability.

They touched on Obama’s plans to hit the ground running, predicting that he would devote his first week in office to economic recovery, set in motion a 16-month troop withdrawal from Iraq and announce a code of ethics for his administration.

“Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead, I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure — that it will prevail, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time,”he said in his remarks at the concert, with the imposing statue of his idol, Lincoln, providing the backdrop.

The ‘We Are One’ concert featured a host of American singing sensations including Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, U2, Shakira, Mary J Blige, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow and Stevie Wonder. Springsteen opened the concert with his song ‘The Rising,’ and Beyonce concluded it with a soulful rendition of ‘America the Beautiful.’ Tens of thousands of people watching the ‘We Are One’ concert on giant screens joined in the finale.

II. 'Obama mania' grips US ahead of his swearing-in

WASHINGTON
: Barack Obama is poised to make history on Tuesday as America's first black president, riding the optimism of millions of people into
Obama
Obama's inauguration celebrations
power and inheriting a recession and two wars that will test his skills. ( Watch )

Obama
, 47, the son of a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, was set to take the oath of office at midday (0500 GMT) on the steps of the US Capitol, his hand placed on a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration in 1861.

Obama's inauguration culminates the hopes and dreams of generations of African-Americans who suffered slavery and then racial segregation policies that made them second-class citizens.

He assumes the mantle of power at a moment of great anxiety among Americans who have seen hundreds of thousands of jobs vanish in past months and left them fearful an economic collapse could turn a crisis into a catastrophe.

The "Obama-mania" that helped propel Obama into office was alive on the streets of Washington.

A winter chill failed to dampen the spirits of more than 1 million people who swept into the US capital to witness the pomp and ceremony and revel in the festivities surrounding Obama's inauguration as the 44th US president.

"Slavery to History, The Obama Inauguration," was the slogan on a handwritten cardboard sign held by a smiling man on a downtown sidewalk. Thousands of security personnel were in place to maintain order and guard against an attack.

Much of the city center was barricaded and shut down to vehicular traffic. In an eagerly anticipated inauguration address he has been working on for weeks, Obama will rally Americans to an era of responsibility, urging them to join in a spirit of unity to take on difficult issues.

"Government can only do so much," he told participants in a service project honouring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday. "We're going to have to take responsibility — all of us."

Obama in recent days has stressed that Americans should expect even rougher economic times and that his plan to revive the struggling economy will take time to work.

Worldwide well-wishers mobilize for inauguration

Hula dancers readied for the stage in a small Japanese city that coincidentally bears Obama's name. Children from his former school in Indonesia were to sing for a gathering well-wishers. And in Hong Kong, Americans prepared to party into the night.

Across Asia, and the world, people gathered Tuesday to mark the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama.

In Indonesia, where Obama spent four years as a boy, children from his former school were to sing at celebrations in downtown Jakarta and former classmates of the president-elect were to gather to watch his speech.

Hopes are high that Obama will return in the first 100 days of his presidency to the tropical country where he is known by the nickname Barry.

Rully Dasaad, former Obama classmate at Menteng 1 elementary school and fellow boy scout, said he believed Obama's time in Indonesia shaped him as a person.

``I'm proud that the next president is someone who I have shared time with,'' he said. ``It was a crucial time for children our age, it is when we learned tolerance, sharing, pluralism, acceptance and respect of difference in cultures and religions.''

Hong Kong was also marking the historic transition. The Madame Tussauds museum at Hong Kong's popular mountaintop tourist attraction Victoria Peak was due to unveil a wax figure of Obama, adding to its collection of statues of Chinese celebrities like Jackie Chan, former Chinese leaders Mao Zedong and Jiang Zemin and the country's first astronaut, Yang Liwei.

The wax figure was part of a global rollout — Obama figures have already been unveiled at Madame Tussauds museums in London, Berlin and New York.