U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (L)
and Vice President elect Joe Biden (C) lay a wreath at the Tomb of the
Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, Jan. 18,
2009.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) Photo
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WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama's inauguration address will stress "responsibility" by calling on
Americans to embrace a new era of good behavior, his aides said on Sunday.
"Responsibility" and "getting our country back on
track" is the core theme of the speech, incoming White House Press Secretary Rob
Gibbs told Fox News.
He said the president-elect wrote the speech himself,
and the bulk of it has been finished by now.
"We need more responsibility and accountability
certainly in the way our government acts. We have to have it certainly in many
of our financial institutions that sort of have gotten us to where we are in
this economic crisis today," said Gibbs.
"Obviously the American people are all going to have
to give some," he added, noting that the address will also try to stress that
"those that have had the short end of the stick for the last few years will get
the help that they need."
Gibbs said that the country is at a crossroads, as it
has been before, and "we always find ourselves -- at least this country always
has -- doing what is necessary to make this country and the lives of the
American people better for each and every generation that follows."
Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice for White House chief of
staff, said Obama's Tuesday speech will ask the nation to reject the "culture of
anything goes."
Emanuel told NBC that the president-elect will ask
Americans to restore a national value system that honors responsibility and
accountability.
Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president of
the United States on Tuesday, and will give his inaugural speech after
swearing-in on the west front of the Capitol building.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden joined a large jubilant crowd in
an open-air welcome concert here on Sunday afternoon, kicking off the
inauguration celebrations in the national capital.
"The dream of our founders will live on in our time ...
What gives me hope is what I see when I look out across this mall," Obama told
thousands of people gathering on the National Mall grounds in front of the
Lincoln Memorial. Full story
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- Barack Obama's
multicultural background would help bring people of different races together,
agreed many Americans who had been waiting for the arrival of the U.S.
president-elect at the Union Station in Washington D.C. on Saturday.
"He has an African father, an American mother and his
experience in the upbringing will bring another dimension to the immigration
experience and culture that we all share as Americans," said Kate Clary, a white
woman in her late 50s who was among the cheering crowds waiting for Obama to get
off the Amtrack train. Full story
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect
Barack Obama will immediately deal with military withdrawal from Iraq and the
domestic financial crisis after his swearing-in, incoming White House spokesman
Robert Gibbs said on Sunday.
"First he's going to meet with his economic team to see
where we are on an economic recovery and re-investment plan ... so that the
American people can feel confident that things are moving in the right
direction," Gibbs told "Fox News Sunday." Full story
