Two days from the White House, President-elect Barack Obama joined a vast throng today (Jan. 18) at a roaring, rollicking pre-inauguration celebration staged before marble monuments to past heroes. “Anything is possible in America," declared the man who will confront economic crisis and two wars when he takes office.
“Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead, I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure -- that the dream of our founders will live on in our time," the president-elect said at the conclusion of a musical extravaganza that featured U2, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and other stars.
Obama and his family held the seats of honor at the event, and a crowd of tens of thousands spilled from the base of the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument several blocks away in the cold, gray afternoon of mid-January.
“Despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead, I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure -- that the dream of our founders will live on in our time," the president-elect said at the conclusion of a musical extravaganza that featured U2, Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen and other stars.
Obama and his family held the seats of honor at the event, and a crowd of tens of thousands spilled from the base of the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument several blocks away in the cold, gray afternoon of mid-January.
