Obama rides the rails to DC, packing American's hope

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-01-18 08:50

Washington – Invoking hope and history, US President-elect Barack Obama rolled into the US capital city Saturday night pledging to help bring the nation "a new Declaration of Independence" and promising to rise to the stern challenges of the times. He kicked off a four-day inaugural celebration with a daylong rail trip, retracing the path Abraham Lincoln took in 1861.

US President-elect Barack Obama (2nd R), his wife Michelle (R), Vice President-elect Joe Biden (L) and his wife Jill look out from the back of their train at a station in Wilmington, Delaware, January 17, 2009. They are on a train trip to Washington to kick off several days of inauguration festivities with Obama being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States on January 20. [Agencies]

Obama began his day in Philadelphia, where he said the young nation had faced its "first true test" as a fragile democracy. He ended it in Washington, where his own tests await after his inauguration on Tuesday.

The president-in-waiting drew on a grand heritage of American giants as he appealed "not to our easy instincts but to our better angels," an echo of Lincoln's first inaugural address. He took note of the enormous challenges that lie ahead and promised to act with "fierce urgency," a phrase often used by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Riding a vintage railcar on his whistle-stop trip to Washington, Obama carried with him the hopes of a nation weary of war, frightened of economic chaos and searching for better days. Vice President-elect Joe Biden joined the journey en route, from his home in Delaware, and spoke for many when he said he was excited and ready for Tuesday.

Then, sobered by the challenges of governing, Biden added: "I think it's Wednesday we need to be ready."

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