He takes office with friendlier majorities in Congress than any chief executive since Lyndon Johnson and confronts economic challenges unrivaled since the era of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Rising unemployment, a crippled financial lending system, millions without health care and an economy dangerously dependent on foreign oil top the agenda at home. Two wars - one he has vowed to end, the other to wage - confront him overseas.
More fundamentally, he told the country Tuesday in his inaugural address, “Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”
Partially because of America’s tortured racial history, Obama’s inauguration sparked enormous excitement, and he begins his presidency with a larger reservoir of goodwill than might otherwise be the case. A vast crowd that began filling the National Mall before daybreak on Tuesday was evidence of that, a final comeuppance to those who doubted a black could gain the White House.
But like the new president and his aides, even those who stood with Martin Luther King Jr., and then preceded Obama into politics understand that will not be enough.
“This is a victory for democracy, for all Americans who see their hopes and dreams in Barack Obama, who now feel that they have a voice,” Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, said in an Inauguration Day statement.
“But after the Inaugural celebration ends, I caution the American people to have patience. We face many great challenges that took more than 100 days to create, and will take more than 100 days to rectify,” added the South Carolina Democrat, who recalled first meeting King in 1960.
