Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 21, 1993 TAG: 9301210278
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO AP. 1. AFTER
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
`SEASON OF RENEWAL' URGED
Bill Clinton took the oath as 42nd president of the United States Wednesday in a sunbathed ceremony in front of a sparkling Capitol and proclaimed triumphantly: "A new season of American renewal has begun."An estimated 1 million people crowded the Capitol grounds and lined Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate the first Democrat to enter the White House in 16 years.
In a transfer of power notable for its civility, he saluted a half-century of public service by President Bush, who rode with him up Pennsylvania Avenue for the inaugural ceremony before flying out of Washington and out of politics.
With Vice President Al Gore sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White minutes earlier, control of the nation passed to two sons of the South at precisely noon when Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist administered the presidential oath of office to William Jefferson Clinton.
Clinton's ascension to the presidency symbolized a political and generational shift in power, ending 12 years of Republican rule and giving the nation its third-youngest president.
The day's festivities continued with an inaugural parade and ended with a round of 11 inaugural balls, the social highlight of a celebratory week.
In an inaugural speech of barely 15 minutes, the third-shortest in history, the new president committed himself to revitalizing the nation and leading the post-Cold War world.
To the nation, he issued a call to work, sacrifice, service and change.
"Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right with America," he declared.
To the world he issued a warning that the United States would defend its own interests and confront those who defied international "conscience and will," a message meant most immediately for Iraq, which is defying the United Nations, and the former Yugoslavia, where Serbian "ethnic cleansing" has outraged the world.
To Congress, in a post-inaugural luncheon toast, he proposed "a new partnership in government" to break the gridlock.
"I cannot succeed as president unless Congress itself succeeds," he said.
After the lunch, the new first family drove slowly down Pennsylvania Avenue, cheered by thousands of screaming, flag-waving well-wishers. They got out of their car, coatless in the early afternoon sun, to walk the last half mile to the White House. They did not plunge into the crowds as they routinely did during the campaign, but walked down the center of the road, flanked by Secret Service agents.