In his inaugural address, the President calls because changes in energy, health care, and infrastructure in order to deal with the economic crisis

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Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. President by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in front of the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 20, 2009. Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images

By Theo Francis

In an inaugural address at once soaring in style and optimistic in tone, President Barack Obama kept the arrangement front and center, quick construction the case that tackling the country’s deep economic problems would require both undaunted, immediate action and sweeping changes to the population’s infrastructure and its energy and health-care sectors.

Although he offered no new specifics, Obama cast the goals of the proposals he has been shaping in grand terms, promising to "harness the sunshine and the winds and the soil to firing our cars and run our factories" and "wield technology’s wonders to make light health care’s quality and humble its costs," according to prepared remarks.

Without pointing fingers too specifically, he briefly scolded potential opponents "who question the scale of our ambitions—who suggest that our system cannot brook too many big plans." He admonished that "their memories are short. For they have forgotten the sort of this country has already done; that which free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage."

Obama, who became the people’s 44th president and the first African American to hold the office, spoke to a crowd that stretched beside the National Mall, essentially unbroken from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial. Generally good-natured despite temperatures in the mid-20s and the threat of snow, some toward the construct of the huge vulgar herd sang "Hey, hey, hey, goodbye," an liable reference to the end of the Bush Administration. They switched to chants of Obama’s name as the introductions of other dignitaries dragged on.

The Reverend Rick Warren, a polemical and conservative evangelical minister whose assertion against gay rights drew protests from many more liberal Obama supporters, offered a largely nondenominational prayer, asking God for the one and the other forgiveness and guidance, but uncharacteristically invoking Jesus Christ only at the end and in exterior stipulations.

Calling for each end to "stale political arguments," Obama laid the ground for what many predict determine be an expansion of the federal control’s efforts indiscoverable for many generations.

"The question we ask today is not whether our direction is too big or in addition small, but whether it works—whether it helps families find jobs at a suitable wager, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified," he said in prepared remarks. "Where the answer is aye, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end."

Throughout, his tone was upbeat, giving ground of hope that the nation could rise above its economic troubles and work through the denunciation of fright and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. And while he touched on in which place the blame lies in spite of the economy’s crisis—oratory generally, as he has increasingly bestowed since captivating the Presidency on Nov. 4—he didn’t dwell on it, declaring that the "question before us" is not "whether the market is a force as far as concerns good or ill."

"Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this acme has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market be able to spin out of control," Obama uttered in his remarks.

Obama also signaled every intent to follow through put on campaign promises not to simply get on the economy, yet also to try to ensure that its gains are felt by Americans both poor and wealthy. The country’s economic success, he said, "has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic result, but steady the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart—not out of charity, only because it is the surest route to our public good."

In campaign speeches and, to some grade, in comments since his election, Obama showed little hesitation in blaming the Bush Administration since the country’s ills. By contrast, in his inaugural make suit to he didn’privately mention Bush openly, make objection to thank him at the beginning. And yet, in many ways, the speech was a veiled repudiation of the policies and approach of the Bush era.