Inauguration celebrations begin in Washington

On Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama got Elizabeth Ross, a 57-year-old African-American woman from Lorman, Miss., to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. Clad in a floor-length black mink coat, matching hat and stunningly manicured nails, Mrs. Ross — and hundreds of thousands of others, their faces bright with both chill and expectation — converged on the Lincoln Memorial to kick off America’s three-day inauguration party.

Crammed together as far as the eye could see — from the seated statue of Abraham Lincoln all the way past the reflecting pool and up the hill to the Washington Monument — they danced, sang, shivered, cheered, hooted and hollered for the black man who will be America’s next president, in what seemed a cross between the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington and Woodstock.

Mr. Obama, looking into the mass of faces raised to him, seemed to feed off the crowd. The text of his speech was somber, noting the economic crisis and the two wars, and calling for a new spirit of sacrifice to overcome them. But his voice was upbeat.

“I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure,” the president-elect said. “What gives me that hope is what I see when I look out across this mall.”

(Via NYT)