George W. Bush took power as the 43rd President of the United States on Saturday, exhorting Americans to choose "community over chaos" by uniting as a nation to heal gaping political divides.
Bush, who claimed the White House when the Supreme Court decided the outcome of the most bitterly contested election in decades, swore on an ancient Bible as Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the oath of office.
In a poignant open-air ritual at the US Capitol enacted on a freezing day, Bush's father, former Republican president George Bush and his predecessor Bill Clinton looked on, along with vice-president Al Gore, whom Bush vanquished in the bitter post-election legal battle, said AFP.
"I George Walker Bush do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," he said, his right hand raised in the simple oath of office.
Bush, whose eyes filled with tears after completing the oath, inherits a political climate polarized by the prolonged courtroom battle for power, said the agency.
A tear rolled from his eyes after the oath was administered by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and, a second time, at the conclusion of his speech, when he hugged his father, according to the Washington Post newspaper.
Thousands of sign-waving protesters, some chanting "Hail to the thief," roamed the streets which were patrolled by about 7,000 officers from more than a dozen law enforcement agencies, said the Post.
But at the Capitol, the ceremony proceeded smoothly as first Richard B. Cheney took the oath of office as vice president, and then Bush, his voice firm, recited the hallowed words promising to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States."
Al Gore, defeated by Bush in a bitter contest decided by the Supreme Court, glumly faced Bush on the West Portico of the Capitol, said the paper.
Outgoing President Bill Clinton, the man who ousted the new president's father from the White House in 1992, and the outgoing first lady and new Democratic senator from New York, Hillary Rodham Clinton, sat near the elder Bush and his wife, Barbara.
Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, and their 19-year-old twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, and Cheney by his wife, Lynne, and their daughters, Elizabeth and Mary. In addition to Bush's parents, the ceremony was attended by former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.
Bush's daughters held back when their parents went up for the oath-taking. Clinton and Gore motioned to them to go up to the podium, and Clinton helped position them behind their mother, said the post.
Before Bush left the Capitol, he signed papers formally nominating his Cabinet members, and the Senate quickly confirmed seven of them with a single voice vote during an unusual Saturday session.
Bush, said the Post, sought to undo many of Clinton's 11th-hour regulations and executive orders by suspending their publication in the Federal Register, which is required for them to take effect.
Bush, a former Texas governor, baseball team owner and oil company executive, will tread in the footsteps of president John Quincy Adams who moved into the White House in 1825, 24 years after the end of the presidency of his father John Adams.
In one of his first acts in office, AFP said that Bush instructed White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card to suspend a series of Clinton's executive decrees, dealing largely with the environment, issued in his last weeks in office.
His task, however, will be complicated by a restive Congress nominally under Republican control but almost evenly divided between the two parties, which are already jockeying for position ahead of mid-term polls in 2002.
Nevertheless, the Senate moved with speed on Saturday to confirm the first seven members of Bush's cabinet.
As night fell, swarms of decked-out people moved toward major Washington hotels and convention halls as traditional inaugural balls began -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
