he new president addresses the nation and speaks of work and sacrifice and makes clear that Bush policies will change.

Reporting from Los Angeles — Barack Hussein Obama took the oath of office today as the nation’s 44th president — and the nation’s first black chief executive — and told Americans shaken by economic despair and war that shared sacrifice would be required to draw the nation back to prosperity and peace.

“Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed,” Obama declared in a ringing inaugural address. “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and begin again the work of remaking America.

“For everywhere we look, there is work to be done,” he said, ticking off needs in the areas of the economy, energy, education and myriad other fronts. “All this we can do, and all this we will do.”

Obama’s day was replete with the emotion of the past — the son of a white Kansas mother and a Kenyan father took his oath from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln more than a century ago.

But his inaugural address, though filled with eloquent references to American will and its historic successes, was also a sharp attempt to wrest the country from the path set by outgoing President Bush.

Obama sets fresh course for ‘remaking America’ – Los Angeles Times.

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) — Barack Obama’s inauguration marks a profound manifestation of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s dream, civil rights leaders say, but the movement would be foolish to drop its guard now.

Christine King Farris sits next to a photo of her brother as she reads to kids to commemorate his birthday Thursday.

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King did not fight tirelessly and ultimately give his life so African-Americans could take office; he fought for the disenfranchised and downtrodden, no matter their color, said Charles Steele, president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King and Steele’s father helped found.

“President-elect Barack Obama is just a piece of the puzzle,” he said. “This tells us that we are at a station, but it’s not our destination. We’ve got to get back on the train.”

Steele said he worries that those who espouse King’s dream may grow lackadaisical because an African-American has taken the reins of the free world. But it is imperative, he said, that they “march now more than ever before.”

Steele points to 1963, when tens of thousands of protesters converged on Washington to demand equal rights. It was there King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech from the Lincoln Memorial steps.

President Kennedy’s administration was considered the most receptive ever to the concerns of the civil rights movement, Steele said. But rather than sit back and hope Kennedy did the right thing, King and thousands stormed Washington to lay out demands that later would yield the Civil Rights Act and National Voting Rights Act.

Those down for the cause today must do the same with Obama, Steele said.

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Civil rights vets: Fight not over because Obama reaches top – CNN.com.

Voices of Obama’s America: Who We Are Now | Newsweek Politics: The Obama Presidency | Newsweek.com.

Barack Obama promises to reboot the White House. But first he’ll have to navigate the blogosphere and deep layers of federal gobbledygook.
Photo: Terry Richardson/CPI Syndication

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In November, not two weeks after winning the election and still two months from becoming commander in chief, Barack Obama brought the government into the 21st century. Or at least that was what we were told when he released his first Web video address as president-elect. The clip, billed by some as a modern fireside chat, was embedded as a YouTube video on Change.gov, the incoming administration’s Web site. Sitting in a leather chair, framed slightly off center from his chest up, Obama delivered a three-minute talk on the economic crisis, vlog style.

The video quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of views, and within a few days hundreds of blogs were linking to it. Obama’s foray into viral video, the story went, heralded the beginning of a new era in government communication and transparency—”Franklin Roosevelt 2.0,” in the words of The Huffington Post. The Washington Post proclaimed the advent of the “YouTube presidency.”

The Wired Presidency: Can Obama Really Reboot the White House?.