Barack Obama will Sunday be sworn in to shoulder the power and burden of the US presidency for a second term, launching two days of inaugural rituals darkened by domestic discord and crises abroad.
Using a bible belonging to First Lady Michelle Obama’s grandmother, Democrat Obama, 51, will swear to faithfully execute the office of president at a low-key ceremony at 11:55am (1655 GMT) in the Blue Room of the White House, to comply with the US Constitution, which dictates his first term ends at noon on January 20.
In a tradition honoured when that date falls on a Sunday, Obama will repeat the oath in a public ceremony Monday, and deliver his inaugural address to Americans, and the watching world, outside the US Capitol.
The vice president, Joe Biden, was sworn in during a separate ceremony Sunday morning at the Naval Observatory.
Obama’s second inauguration, which comes courtesy of an election win over Republican Mitt Romney in November, lacks the hope and history that pulsated through his swearing-in as the first black American president in 2009.
Since then, a greying Obama has been battered by a weak economic recovery, failed to meet hugely elevated expectations for his presidency and waged a political war of attrition with Republicans.
He begins anew with several fierce budget battles looming in Congress, and his ‘Yes We Can’ rhetoric soured by sarcasm over the blocking tactics of Republicans in the partisan brouhaha paralyzing government in Washington.
While polls show Obama’s approval ratings above 50 per cent — far higher than the reviled Congress, they also indicate that many Americans, wearied by a stop-start recovery, doubt their country is headed in the right direction.