WASHINGTON – After the familiar salutation to "my fellow citizens" and a polite thank-you to the man he replaced, President Barack Obama got right to the point.
"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood," he said.
It was an inaugural address that laid out his economic challenges with cold-eyed realism. But his remedies — equal parts hope and policy agenda — face a slew of political and practical hurdles. And he offered no specifics to back up his promise to improve America's standing in the world and end a war that he opposed.
Overall, Obama faces not only new troubles but also intractable foreign and domestic problems that have burdened more than one administration before him.
He promised the world that "we are ready to lead once more," a subtle rebuke of Bush administration policies in war and foreign affairs that candidate Obama had called narrow, highhanded or dangerous. Americans, he said, understood that their nation is exceptional more for its purpose than its power.
"That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood," he said.
It was an inaugural address that laid out his economic challenges with cold-eyed realism. But his remedies — equal parts hope and policy agenda — face a slew of political and practical hurdles. And he offered no specifics to back up his promise to improve America's standing in the world and end a war that he opposed.
Overall, Obama faces not only new troubles but also intractable foreign and domestic problems that have burdened more than one administration before him.
He promised the world that "we are ready to lead once more," a subtle rebuke of Bush administration policies in war and foreign affairs that candidate Obama had called narrow, highhanded or dangerous. Americans, he said, understood that their nation is exceptional more for its purpose than its power.
