In D.C., service is order of day

People pour into city to attend Obama’s 2nd-inaugural events

First lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama join City Year workers Saturday in staining a bookcase at Burrville Elementary School in Washington for the National Day of Service.

First lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama join City Year workers Saturday in staining a bookcase at Burrville Elementary School in Washington for the National Day of Service.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

— On the brink of a second term, President Barack Obama invoked Martin Luther King Jr.’s commitment to service Saturday as inauguration-goers flocked to the capital city for a distinctly American celebration to include an oath-taking as old as the republic, a splashy parade and partying enough to last four years.

“I think we’re on the cusp of some really great things,” Vice President Joe Biden predicted for a country still recovering from recession.

Freshly built inaugural stands at the Capitol gleamed white in the sun, and hundreds of chairs for special guests were set out on the lawn that spills down toward the National Mall as the president and vice president began their inauguration weekend.




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Julius Cherry, in town from Sacramento, Calif., took his family to the foot of the Capitol to see the area where their official tickets will let them watch the public ceremonies Monday.

“There were people who said they’d never vote for an African-American president,” the 58-year-old lawyer said. “Now they’ve voted for him twice, and he won the popular vote and the electoral vote. That says something about his policies and his team.”

“And the country,” added Cherry’s wife, Donna.

Across town, workers spent Friday erecting lighting and stages for Obama’s two official inaugural balls. Tens of thousands of ticket-holders will cram into the 2.3 million-square-foot Washington Convention Center on Monday night, where they will be entertained by the likes of Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys and the cast of TV’s Glee — all while hoping for a glimpse of Obama and his wife, Michelle, twirling around the dance floor.

“It’s clearly not as big or as plentiful or elaborate as the last time, but in many ways for Democrats it’s even sweeter,” said Hilary Rosen, an Obama supporter. “People are thrilled about the president; there are a record number of women in the Senate. Gay people are happy, and Latinos. You have these pillars of the election. It meant something different to everybody, but it culminated in this collectively powerful feeling.”

The president made only a glancing reference to race as he spoke Saturday at Burrville Elementary School not far from the White House after he and the first lady stained a bookcase as part of a national service event organized by the inaugural committee. They were joined by about 500 volunteers for the school makeover project.

“We think about not so much the inauguration, but we think about this is Dr. King’s birthday we’re going to be celebrating this weekend,” the president said.

“He said everybody wants to be first, everybody wants to be a drum major. But if you’re going to be a drum major, be a drum major for service, be a drum major for justice, be a drum major for looking out for other people,” Obama said of the civil-rights leader whose birthday will be celebrated as a national holiday Monday.

Because the date for inauguration set in the Constitution, Jan. 20, falls on a Sunday this year, Obama and Biden were to be sworn in for second terms in separate, private ceremonies today.

The public ceremonies are Monday, when Obama will take the oath of office at noon, then deliver an inaugural address before a large crowd and a national television audience in the millions.

The traditional lunch with lawmakers in the Capitol will follow, as will the inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. There, a reviewing stand is adorned with the presidential seal and equipped with seats enough for Obama and other dignitaries to watch in relative comfort as military units, marching bands, floats and thousands of participants file past.

A pair of inauguration balls will cap the day, including one with a guest list of 40,000 names.

A select few — those who donated as much as $1 million to defray inauguration expenses — received special access to public, as well as invitation-only, receptions and parties.

Officials estimated that as many as 800,000 people will attend Monday’s public ceremonies. That’s more than live in the city, if far fewer than the 1.8 million who were at Obama’s first inauguration in 2009.

In 2009, hotels were sold out months in advance. That’s not the case this year. Marketing representatives said last week that rooms were finally booking up, in part because celebrities and their entourages were making last-minute decisions to attend.

Although the singer Bruce Springsteen — a staple of Obama campaign events — will not be returning to Washington for this year’s inauguration, James Taylor will perform America the Beautiful, Kelly Clarkson will sing My Country ’Tis of Thee, and Beyonce will close the inaugural ceremony singing the national anthem.

“I feel like the amount of celebrities, the wattage, may be a little dimmer,” said Barbara Martin, whose business, BrandLinkDC, represents luxury clients, including the W Hotel on the Pennsylvania Avenue parade route.

The president’s second term begins in circumstances different in many ways from the first, but familiar in others.

The economy, then in the grip of a deepening recession, is now recovering slowly as unemployment recedes and stocks flirt with five-year highs. The health-care legislation that Obama urged Congress to enact in his first inaugural address is now the law of the land, courtesy of a split ruling by the Supreme Court.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is dead at the hands of U.S. special operations forces. But the organization he inspired is far from moribund, as demonstrated by the just ended kidnappings Saturday at an Algerian natural-gas complex that, according to the Algerian government, left at least 23 hostages dead.

When Obama took office in 2009, his Democratic allies held control of Congress.

Now, divided government rules, and Republicans who control the House lead the way in insisting that the administration agree to spending cuts that will reduce soaring federal deficits. Obama has said he is ready to compromise on that.

At the outset of a second term, he also wants Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws and take steps to reduce gun violence in the wake of the shooting last month in Newtown., Conn., that killed 20 elementaryschool children.

Yet for once, politics seemed to edge ever so slightly into the background in the most political of cities.

Biden and his wife, Jill, spent time at an armory pitching in as volunteers packed 100,000 care kits for deployed and wounded members of the military, veterans and first responders.

Biden credited former President George H.W. Bush, a Republican, for starting the “Points of Light” program, which was a sponsor of the event. He said service was an antidote to “the coarsening of our culture. We’ve got to get back to reaching out to people.”

In the evening, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden were hosting the Kids’ Inaugural Concert, an event paying special tribute to military spouses and children.

Information for this article was contributed by David Espo, Darlene Superville, Laurie Kellman and Frederic J. Frommer of The Associated Press; and by Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2013