Our democratic tradition | Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team

Remarks of President-Elect Barack Obama
Radio Address on Inauguration Week
January 17, 2009

Good morning. On Tuesday, the world will be watching as America celebrates a rite that goes to the heart of our greatness as a nation. For the forty-third time, we will execute the peaceful transfer of power from one President to the next.

The first Inauguration took place 220 years ago. Our nation’s capital had yet to be built, so President George Washington took the oath of office in New York City. It was a spring day, just over a decade after the birth of our nation, as Washington assumed the new office that he would do so much to shape, and swore an oath to the Constitution that guides us to this very day.
Our democratic tradition | Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team