President Barack Obama (D) has been sworn-in to a second term as the forty-fourth President of the United States. The Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the terms of the president and vice president end, and the terms of a new president and vice president begin, at noon on January 20. The transition was recognized with the president taking the oath of office at the White House. Vice President Joe Biden was sworn-in earlier this morning in a private ceremony at his Naval Observatory residence.
Although the transition formally occurs today (per the Constitutional provision), the inaugural celebration and festivities are scheduled for tomorrow because they are traditionally not held on Sundays. Obama and Biden will both be ceremonially re-sworn tomorrow on the Capitol steps.
President Obama is the first biracial president, the son of a black Kenyan father and a white American mother. He is often erroneously identified as simply being ‘African American.’ Vice President Biden is also notable for being the first Catholic vice president. Despite my many political differences with President Obama, I sincerely wish him a safe and successful second term.