And now it is the Clinton era.
With a simple, centuries-old, 35-word oath, William Jefferson Clinton on Wednesday became the 42nd president of the United States and the first commander in chief born after World War II.
He heralded the historic transition with a solemn call for national renewal and change, a whirl of exuberant celebrations and a brief ceremony to sign his first executive orders.
In a day that saw the 46-year-old Clinton moved from tears to joyous smiles, he evoked memories of his political hero, President John F. Kennedy, with a call for the nation’s young to enter a “season of service”; bade a waving, thumbs-up farewell to his predecessor, George Bush, and settled in to enjoy his official entrance onto the world stage.
At his side throughout-and often holding his hands-were his wife, Hillary, and 12-year-old daughter, Chelsea, now America’s first family.
They all embraced after he finished his 14-minute inaugural address, and the estimated crowd of a quarter-million assembled below the Capitol steps in America’s front yard roared and cheered its approval.
Just over two hours later, the new president and his wife stepped out of the huge bulletproof limousine leading the inaugural parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and strolled hand-in-hand the final few blocks to their new home, waving, pointing and calling to ebullient well-wishers.
At one point, unable to contain his exuberance, the new president did a quick dance step.
There was no evidence that, as he told congressional leaders, he had gotten little sleep Tuesday night. “Al Gore and I stayed up a long time talking last night about this day and this country and what we hoped that we could do,” he said during a post swearing-in toast at the Capitol.
It was a perfect winter day in Washington for an inauguration-sunny with 36-degree temperatures-and the general mood was exultant.
“I’m excited like a schoolboy getting his first chance to play on the basketball team,” said Charles Horn, 64, a retired Campbell Soup Co. worker from Chicago’s South Side, as he watched the parade. “I believe Clinton’s going to be one of the greatest presidents of the 20th Century.”
But signs speckled along the parade route reflected some of the real and deep problems that Clinton will immediately confront. “Workers need jobs-not a war against Iraq,” said one. “Keep your promises-AIDS won’t wait,” said another.
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And while Clinton celebrated, the Pentagon kept a minimal crew at work monitoring the military situation in Iraq and elsewhere to keep him fully informed on the world trouble spots he has inherited.
On the Capitol’s flag-draped West Front, Clinton referred briefly to foreign affairs in his inaugural address, warning, “When our vital interests are challenged, or the will and conscience of the international community is defied, we will act – with peaceful diplomacy whenever possible, with force when necessary.”
But he kept his focus on the theme of change, generational and domestic, which had dominated his campaign rhetoric.
“Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the Cold War assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues,” he said.
“My fellow Americans, this is our time. Let us embrace it. . . . Today we pledge an end to the era of deadlock and drift-and a new season of American renewal has begun.”
He also spoke of the need to revitalize the economy and implement political and health-care reforms, while simultaneously warning Americans to brace for the tough choices lying ahead and not to expect “something for nothing.”
It was a speech that dealt more with generalities than specifics, and while the language was forthright and simple, few listeners seemed to think it produced a phrase that would ring through history.
As he spoke, Clinton-who had doffed his overcoat to take the presidential oath-gestured with his hands, holding them wide open and then bringing them together in body language that seemed to embrace the crowd.
Clinton eschewed the traditional morning suit and wore a dark gray suit, white shirt and blue tie to his swearing-in.
Fifteen minutes before Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the oath to Clinton, Justice Byron White-subbing for an ailing retired Justice Thurgood Marshall-swore in Al Gore as vice president. It was probably one of the few times in the next four years that Gore will precede Clinton. For the rest of the day, Gore and his wife, Tipper, moved through the festivities in the shadow of the Clintons.
If it was a day of firsts for Clinton, who was saluted with the traditional “Hail to the Chief” and addressed as “Mr. President” within seconds of taking the oath of office-it was also a day of somber farewells for the 68-year-old Bush, who had campaigned hard for a second term.
Clinton’s public day began on a highly emotional note. An expressive man who is given to hugging men and women-some would describe him as “touchy-feely”-Clinton also is easily moved to tears and, unlike his stoic predecessor, has no reluctance to display his emotions in public.
Clinton, a Southern Baptist, attended an early-morning interfaith service at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church just blocks from the White House, and tears could be seen streaming down his cheeks during the hymn “Holy Ground.” Several other times he wiped his reddened eyes and tightly squeezed his wife’s hand.
In his sermon, Rev. Dr. Gardner Taylor, pastor emeritus of the Concord Baptist Church of Brooklyn, N.Y., compared the Arkansan’s new term to the era of Kennedy, saying, “It is as if we have come again to Camelot, but this time with the atmosphere of the Ozarks and the accents of the grand Southern American heartland.”
Although Clinton devoted his day to pomp and circumstance, there was one interlude of official business. Minutes after being sworn in, he conducted a five-minute ceremony in the President’s Room at the Capitol, signing an executive order detailing ethics requirements for top-level administration appointees.
His second official act was to sign a document proclaiming Friday a National Day of Fellowship and Hope.
Even Republicans, or at least some of them, got into the spirit. A big red and white banner near the Russell Senate Office Building greeted the new president as he left the Capitol with the message: “Republicans for Clinton.”