Obama at White House - Inauguration day 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Barack and Michelle Obama were at the White House on Tuesday to meet with President Bush, as hundreds of thousands gathered at the Capitol for Obama's inauguration.

The Obamas attended a prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church on Tuesday morning and then headed to the nearby White House for a meeting with the outgoing president and first lady Laura Bush.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, arrived at the White House shortly before the Obamas. The Obamas, Bushes and Bidens were expected to have coffee at the before heading to the Capitol.

The 9 a.m. church service kicked off a day of events for the man who will become the nation's 44th president at noon ET.

As many as 2 million people are expected to crowd into the area between the Capitol, the White House and the Lincoln Memorial as Obama takes the oath of office.

Gerrard Coles of Norwalk, Connecticut, had staked out a position in front of St. John's.

"Everyone's down here -- hopefully to catch a glimpse of Barack, just for a split second," he said. "I think this was a beautiful thing. It's something I always wanted to do. It's not every day that you get to be a part of history. Rather than just watch it on TV, you actually get to partake in it and you have a story to tell your kids."

A crowd gathered at a barricade near the church was letting children and shorter onlookers move to the front of the crowd so they could get a better view.

Some spectators will be more than a mile from the swearing-in ceremony, watching on giant TV screens erected along the National Mall.

Thousands arrived before daylight Tuesday in standing-room-only trains. They carried blankets and wore Obama scarves to ward off the wind chills of minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Suburban Washington train stations were jammed. A four-story parking deck at the Springfield, Virginia, station was filled at 5 a.m. Trains rolling into the stop about 15 miles south of the Capitol had no room for the hundreds on the platform.

The Metro rail system's Red Line was shut down about 9 a.m. after a pedestrian was hit by a train, further snarling the already overloaded train service, fire officials said.

On Monday night, visitors wandered around the Mall, snapping pictures and shooting video of the Capitol and monuments.

The scene around Lafayette Square was almost chaotic, with cars turning around in the street as they were confronted with barriers to closed-off areas and clots of pedestrians crossing streets against the light.

The visitors' excitement rubbed off on some of the jaded locals, one of whom said D.C. residents were "cynical of government."

"The energy on the streets is something I've never seen before," said Nancy Wigal, a 45-year-old technical writer who lives in the Mount Vernon Square area. "People are walking lighter, standing taller and are reaching out to one another. It feels like hope. It feels like shared happiness."

The morning began at 4 a.m. for many as those without tickets made a land grab on the Mall, rushing to stake out positions for the ceremony.

After Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden take their oaths of office on the western front of the Capitol, Obama will deliver his inaugural address, which Obama aides say will emphasize that America is entering a new era of responsibility.

In the approximately 20-minute speech, Obama will say America has been hurt by a "me-first" mentality that contributed to the current economic crisis, aides say, and he will call on individuals -- as well as corporations and businesses -- to take responsibility for their actions.

After a formal farewell to President George W. Bush and lunch with congressional leaders, Obama will head up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, where he and his family will watch the inauguration parade from a reviewing stand. The parade begins at 3:45 p.m. ET.

The new president and first lady will then close the night by attending 10 official inaugural balls.

Officials say they really don't know how many will show up, but estimates range from 1 million to 2 million.

Organizers have said about 280,000 people can fit into the secure zones around the Capitol and roughly 300,000 into the area around the parade. A mere 28,000 seats are available on Capitol grounds.

Those with tickets to the inauguration will undergo tight screening, including passing through magnetometers, when they enter the seating area in front of the Capitol.

Spectators without tickets will be routed to the Mall, which for the first time will be open from end to end for an inauguration. Security there will be less stringent.

Jeri Pickett of Rochester, New York, was one of the few who got a ticket.

"I'd just like to see the inspiration of America," said Pickett, when asked what he was expecting from Inauguration Day. "There's so much warmth here now, and excitement -- rejuvenation."

Transportation officials say they will run subway trains on rush-hour schedules starting at 4 a.m. as well as extra buses. The Metro expects more than 1 million riders.

Inauguration events have already drawn record crowds. A crowd attending an inauguration concert Sunday was estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 and stretched from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Washington Monument, which stands at the midpoint of the Mall.

While Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said Monday there was "no credible threat" to the inauguration events, a security cordon has been put in place around the city's core, turning much of downtown Washington into a pedestrian-only zone.

In addition to Secret Service, the security effort will involve 8,000 police officers from the District of Columbia and other jurisdictions, 10,000 National Guard troops, about 1,000 FBI personnel, and hundreds of others from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service and U.S. Capitol Police.

Another 20,000 members of the National Guard are ready to respond if there is an emergency, according to outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Inauguration Day 2009 - Barack Obama

By ALAN FRAM,

WASHINGTON – The streets of the nation's capital pulsed with expectation Tuesday as crowds determined to witness the swearing-in of President-elect Barack Obama overwhelmed mass transit lines and clogged security checkpoints.

Energized by the historic moment, tens of thousands of people turned this city's orderly grid of streets into a festive party scene. Ready to endure below-freezing temperatures, they streamed up from subway stations and thronged past parked buses, emergency vehicles and street vendors, bound for Pennsylvania Avenue and the National Mall for the inauguration.

"This is the culmination of two years of work," said Obama activist Akin Salawu, 34, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who helped the candidate as a community organizer and Web producer. "We got on board when Obama was the little engine who could. He's like a child you've held onto. Now he's going out into the world."

By 4 a.m., lines of riders formed in suburban parking lots for the Metro transit system, which opened early and put on extra trains for the expected rush. Many parking lots filled up and had to be closed.

Streets around the Capitol quickly filled with people, and security checkpoints were mobbed. The cold registered at 21 degrees Fahrenheit at 7:45 a.m.

Warming tents and other facilities on the Mall were late opening because traffic and crowds delayed staffers from reaching them. Ticket holders approaching the Inaugural site on Capitol Hill awaited security sweeps in a line estimated at thousands.

Connie Grant of Birmingham, Alabama, said she got up at 3:30 a.m. after coming to Washington with a group. Three hours later she was still on 7th street waiting for police to clear the way into the Mall.

She said the wait didn't matter. "I sacrificed and came here. To me, this is very historic. I just wanted to be here."

Christian Alderson of Berryville, Va., went to Memphis, Tenn., in 1968 to support the sanitation workers strike and said he was there when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.

"That day was sorrowful," Alderson, 73, said as he stood near the mall. "This is a dream come true for me."

At the opposite end of town, Georgetown University students chanted "Obama!" and "Fired up Ready to Go!" as they walked down M Street toward the Mall.

A flea-market atmosphere prevailed on downtown streets, with white tents set up to sell Obama T-shirts and mugs as well as food, bottled water, snacks, scarves and footwarmers. The scent of grilled coiled sausages and steaming Chinese food greeted those who walked toward the parade route, more than six hours before Obama would pass by.

As the first waves of people began moving through security screenings, they scrambled for prime viewing spots along Pennsylvania Avenue — sitting on the curb, staking out plots of grass, or clambering on to cold metal benches.

Suburban subway riders also seemed to be in a jubilant mood, despite the early hour. In Fredericksburg, Va., an hour south of Washington, chants of "Obama! Obama!" rang out at a commuter rail station when the line started moving at 5 a.m. for the first trip into Washington.

World history teacher Calvin Adams of Arlington, Va., said he got up extra early so he could witness history being made first-hand and teach it to his classes.

"Eventually I'll teach American history," said Adams, 23. "I'll say, 'This is how it works because I've been there, I've seen it.'"

The joyous mood was tempered only by delays and by the dashed expectations of revelers eager to get an up-close look at history.

Alice Williams, a 51-year-old teacher of gifted children from Kansas City, Mo., had the coveted purple ticket that would placed her in front of the Capitol, but she got caught in the crowd bottleneck and instead was stuck a half mile away.

"We got blocked off; there was too much traffic and no guidance," she said forlornly. "I've been walking for an hour and a half. All I want to do is see my president sworn in"

One parade entrance was supposed to open at 7 a.m. The crowd, which was one-block deep, counted down at 7 a.m. The gate did not open. The chants got louder at 7:30 a.m., but the gates remain closed.

D.C. police have projected inaugural crowds between 1 million and 2 million. Planners say attendance could easily top the 1.2 million people who were at Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inauguration, the largest crowd the National Park Service has on record.

Obama speech issues dire warning on economy

Hopefully something will be done to bring us out of this recession before we head into a full blown depression. Which is what I think it going to happen. This just isn't one presidents fault either. Sure some added more than others, but this is a trend that has been going on for awhlie now. Both sides of the aisle are responsible for this too.

By Michael McAuliff

Barack Obama gave his most dire warning yet on the economy, saying if we don't act now, things will get much worse. He spoke Thurs. at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.

Barack Obama is warning in his starkest language yet that America is headed for an economic disaster if the country doesn't act quickly.

In a speech set for early this afternoon, Obama is warning that the nation risks spawning an entire generation of despair in an abysmal depression that lingers for years with double-digit unemployment and plummeting family incomes.

"I don't believe it's too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama warns in excerpts of his speech.

"If nothing is done, this recession could linger for years," he says. "A bad situation could become dramatically worse."

The dire forecast is at least in part a sales job that seems aimed at priming the nation to accept one of the largest government interventions in the country's history, as Obama and Democrats in Congress craft a massive economic recovery plan that will cost $770 billion at a minimum, and could reach $1.3 trillion in tax breaks and spending.

That means blasting an even larger hole in the already massive deficit — and getting Congress and the public to go along with it.

"There is no doubt that the cost of this plan will be considerable," Obama says. "It will certainly add to the budget deficit in the short-term. But equally certain are the consequences of doing too little or nothing at all, for that will lead to an even greater deficit of jobs, incomes, and confidence in our economy."

Private businesses will be vital to the effort, Obama says, but only Uncle Sam can haul them out of the ditch first.

"At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe," he says. "Only government can break the vicious cycles that are crippling our economy - where a lack of spending leads to lost jobs which leads to even less spending; where an inability to lend and borrow stops growth and leads to even less credit."

Obama's prescription is to spend lavishly on things like alternative energy and infrastructure to create private sector jobs, while funneling cash to states and cities to keep teachers, cops and firefighters on the job.

On top of that he wants to renovate regulations governing Wall Street and craft fixes for the "bubble or bust" mortgage markets.

And if folks don't listen, Obama warns: "More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied. And our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

Putting the case that starkly throws a sharp challenge to Republicans and conservatives who don't like the growing intervention or the ballooning price tag, and leaves them in the tough spot of either trying to downplay the severity of the crisis, or arguing that using the government so comprehensively will actually hurt.

Excerpts of the speech (to be given at George Mason University in Virginia) are after the jump.

Obama names Nancy Killefer 'chief performance officer'

What kind of perfoming will she be doing? Another Monica in the wings it may seem. Another member has been added to the much anticipated preident elect Obama's Cabinet. Only time will tell if he has surrounded himself with the right people in order to be successful.

Killefer, a former Treasury official, will be in charge of eliminating unnecessary government spending and curbing inefficiency. Obama concedes that his stimulus plan will add to deficit. By Peter Nicholas

Reporting from Washington -- President-elect Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he is creating a new high-level position to wring waste and inefficiencies out of government, as part of a broader push to bring more discipline to federal spending.

At a news conference, Obama introduced a "chief performance officer" -- Nancy Killefer, a partner at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and a former Treasury Department official in President Bill Clinton's administration from 1997 to 2000.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As a candidate, Barack Obama promoted hybrid cars.

Auto enthusiasts have panned the design of the new presidential limo, which will be painted all black.

As president, he'll be handed the keys to one. Sort of.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Obama will climb into the Mother of All Hybrids -- part car, part truck and, from the looks of it, part tank.

In keeping with recent tradition, the Secret Service will place a brand-new presidential limousine into service January 20 to drive the new president on the 2-mile jaunt down Pennsylvania Avenue during the inaugural parade.

Already, spy photos of the limo -- with patches of gray primer -- have leaked out. And already, the reviews:

"Ugly as sin," says one car enthusiast on an auto Web site. "Can't we make a hotter ride for our pres?"

"Sheesh," says another, "why don't they just transport the president around in an Abrams tank."

One news agency, noting its 8-inch-thick doors, says the limo can withstand a "direct hit from an asteroid." But GM spokeswoman Joanne K. Krell laughed off the comments.

"And it will fix you a latte if you ask," she jokes.

In truth, the new presidential limo is a Cadillac, Krell said, although it is "not a direct extension of any single model."

"The presidential vehicle is built to precise and special specifications, undergoes extreme testing and development, and also incorporates many of the top aspects of Cadillac's 'regular' cars -- such as signature design, hand-cut-and-sewn interiors, etc.," Krell told CNN.

"Cadillac is honored to serve and renew this great tradition," she said. "And it is entirely appropriate that an American president has at his service a great American vehicle."

For much of the country's history, the Secret Service didn't even drive the president, evidently oblivious to the dangers of asteroids.

In the post-Lincoln horse-and-buggy era, it was customary for a security detail to closely trail the president, according to a Secret Service history.

With the advent of automobiles, the Secret Service acquired a 1907 H. White Steamer to follow Theodore Roosevelt's horse-drawn carriage.

White House chauffeurs drove later presidents, until the Secret Service assumed many of the driving responsibilities after Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945.

In 1965, Lyndon Johnson was the first president to ride in a bulletproof limo in an inaugural parade, less than two years after his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, was shot and killed while riding in an open car.

Cut off from the world

Obama should expect two seemingly contradictory feelings when riding in the presidential limousine, said Joe Funk, a retired Secret Service agent who was President Bill Clinton's driver during part of his career.

"I think he will be surprised about how when he's in the limo, it's a cocoon," Funk said. "The everyday noises will be gone, and he will be totally isolated in this protective envelope."

"At the same time, I think he will be surprised at the communication capabilities, how the phones, the satellites, the Internet -- everything is at his fingertips," he said. "So at one end, you are totally removed from society. The other side of the coin is that he can have any communications worldwide at a moment's touch."

Funk says presidents sometimes chat with the agents, and sometimes don't.

"Every day is different, just like every person," he said. "Sometimes they get in the car and they have a lot on their mind. They're involved in reading material, they're involved in the newspaper, they're talking to local dignitaries or they are talking to Cabinet-level.

"Other times, they are interested in sporting events, in doing the crossword puzzle, interested in the feedback they get from talking to the agents -- primarily the supervisor that sits in the front seat," Funk said.

While the government spares no expense for the presidential limo, the weight of the car makes it less maneuverable and more sluggish than comparable sport utility vehicles, Funk said. And the door and window frames, which accommodate thick ballistic glass, create large blind spots, he said.

Funk's own experience driving Clinton was uneventful, he says, which is a good thing, considering his line of business.

"I was very lucky. We didn't have any close calls," he says. "Everything was very smooth."

But he still considers the experience a career highlight.

"At the end of the day, if you had a good driving day, you do kind of sit back with a certain amount of pride and say, 'I had the president of the United States in the car with me for an hour, two hours, and I got him from point A to point B safely in conjunction with all the other team members,' " he said. "When it's done, you can sit back and take some pride in knowing that you pulled it off."

Available in any color, as long as it's black

One Internet wag, adding to the rampant speculation about the new car, made this prediction: It will be painted black. But environmentalists may ask, will it be green?

Not likely. Car enthusiasts believe the overweight vehicle burns diesel and will have low mileage. And with diesel costing about $2.40 a gallon Monday, versus $1.67 for gasoline, this new limo can't be called an economy vehicle.

"The limousines of yesteryear were designed just well enough to provide protection to get the president out of the situation," says Ken Lucci, CEO of Ambassador Limousine Inc. and owner of two Reagan-era limos. "In today's case, they [the Secret Service] expect a prolonged attack, and they expect an attack that is a lot more violent than [with] a weapon you can hold in you hand."

"It literally is a rolling bunker," he says. "It just happens to have wheels on it."

And it's not a bad vehicle for someone whose job is to fix the economy, even if it won't brew coffee on command.

Israeli missile strike hits near U.N. school in northern Gaza, killing several people

The Israeli military stepped up its offensive in Gaza Tuesday, surrounding densely populated Gaza City with its ground forces after at least 50 air strikes pounded the region overnight.

The United Nations said one Israeli air attack struck an elementary school in Gaza City where hundreds of Palestinians had taken shelter, killing three men.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency said Asma Elementary school was clearly marked as a U.N. installation. It said over 400 people had been given shelter at the school when it was hit Monday night.

"Well before the current fighting, UNRWA had given to the Israeli authorities the GPS (global positioning system) co-ordinates of all its installations in Gaza, including Asma Elementary School," the agency said in a news release.

"UNRWA is strongly protesting these killings to the Israeli authorities and is calling for an immediate and impartial investigation," it added.

Other air strikes hit the homes of people linked to Hamas, including the Wadi family in Jabalya, Hamas security sources said. Eight people were killed in that strike. An overnight air strike hit the Jabalya home of Imad Siam, one of the leaders of Hamas' military wing. Another attack hit the home of a Hamas-affiliated family in Gaza City, killing at least three, according to an eyewitnesses.

Israel claimed Tuesday to have killed 130 Hamas fighters since beginning a ground offensive at the weekend.

As its forces continued to encircle Gaza City -- which has a population of about half a million people -- European diplomats swarmed into the region trying to pull together the elements for a cease-fire. But neither Israel or Hamas has showed any real interest in international calls for a truce.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told French President Nicholas Sarkozy Monday that Israel wanted a "full solution" to the conflict, not just a cease-fire that allowed Hamas to fortify itself, Mark Regev, Olmert's spokesman said.

"Before the last cease-fire with Hamas began, Hamas had missiles with a range of 20 kilometers," Regev said Tuesday. "By the end of the cease-fire, the range of the missiles grew to 40 kilometers. Israel does not want the next cease-fire to allow them to get missiles with a range of 60 kilometers."

A Hamas rocket penetrated farther than ever before into Israel on Tuesday, landing in the town of Gadera, about 36 kilometers (23 miles) north of the Gaza border, the Israeli military said. On Monday, a rocket hit a kindergarten in Ashdod, about 26 kilometers (16 miles) north of Gaza.

Hamas had fired 30 rockets at Israel by Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military said. Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida warned Israel that the militants would continue rocket attacks "for many months" and vowed to strike deeper into Israeli territory.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in northern Gaza late Monday in a "friendly fire" incident involving an explosion from a tank shell that hit a building the troops were in, bringing the Israeli troop deaths from the Gaza ground operation to five, the military said. Two dozen troops were wounded in the explosion -- one critical, three severely.

With no end in sight to the conflict, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated. Hundreds of wounded people swarmed into Gaza's largest hospital and scores of Gazans headed for the morgues -- where two bodies are crammed into each drawer.

"Everybody here is terrorized by the situation," John Ging, the director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in Gaza told CNN, from Gaza City. "There's no place that you can be safe if you're a civilian here. It's not safe in your home.

The Israeli military said another 80 trucks with humanitarian aid would be allowed to pass into Gaza on Tuesday at the Kerem Shalom crossing

According to Palestinian medical sources, at least 23 people were killed in Gaza on Tuesday, bringing the Palestinian death toll to 555 since Israel launched its operation on December 27. Most of the deaths are militants, but include at least 100 civilians, the sources said. Another 2,750 Palestinians have been injured, most of them civilians, the sources said.

The Israeli ground assault was launched Saturday night. Israel says it is the second phase of an operation to stop militants from firing rockets and mortars into southern Israel.

The incursion followed eight days of air strikes on the territory to stop the rocket attacks, which have killed four Israelis since the military operation began.

Plans for Inauguration Day 2009

Security is surely going to be very tight at this Inauguration day more so than it has been in the past. That would be the last thing this country would need right now too. Hopefully everyone who goes will be able to see history take place. In a good way. They will see the first African American sworn in as President of the United States.

Is the Grey Lady is preparing for another sell-out at the newsstands this January 21st? Following Barack Obama's win on November 4th, the paper was practically saved by sales of its print edition on November 5th, when a line even formed outside of their HQ that afternoon. Eventually the paper ended up offering up commemorative prints of the front page for $15. Now MediaBistro points out that the paper has their own ad campaign running which will put the fear in you (you do not want to miss out on the Malia and Sasha get a puppy cover story!); they say: "Seems that the Times wants you to subscribe to the paper based on the idea that every day of the next eight years will be as historic as November 4." Well, maybe not every day, but expect another record day in sales after Obama's inauguration on January 20th—the site notes that whoever designs that front page "will be sure that it looks good in a frame."

Here are Metro's parking rules for Jan. 20, and no matter how bad it sounds, I still think that Metrorail is the best bet for getting to the inaugural or just getting to work on that busy day:

Car's won't be allowed to park at the Greenbelt, Morgan Boulevard, Van Dorn Street and Minnesota Avenue stations. They'll be reserved for charter bus parking, and these will be the only stations where the charters can park.

To prepare for Inauguration Day, all Metrorail parking facilities will close at midnight on Monday and will be cleared of vehicles in preparation for Inauguration Day. Cars parked in those spots after midnight will be ticketed and towed.

All the Metrorail parking areas will open at 3:30 a.m. on Jan. 20. Cars will be charged $4 for all-day parking on the way in. It's cash only. No SmarTrip cards or credit cards. At the end of your day, just go. The gates will be up.

For Charter Buses
Charter buses that want to park at one of those six Metrorail stations must register at www.clickandpark.com. If a bus arrives without the necessary registration, it will be turned away from the station.

For Car Drivers
Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr. had originally planned for the Jan. 20 parking to be free for drivers. It would have been a real hassle for everyone at the end of the day when some visitors figured out right at the exit gate that they needed a SmarTrip card to get out.

But Catoe changed his mind on the charge last month when it became clear that Metro would need to get a contractor in to manage parking on Inauguration Day. The $4 -- the most that Metro can charge for parking without holding a public hearing -- will help defray the cost of the parking management, Catoe said.

Metrorail Riders
In the weeks leading up to Inauguration Day, Metro is testing the ability of its power supply and its operators to handle more eight-car trains. It started last month on the Green and Yellow lines.

Today and Tuesday, there will be more eight car trains on the Blue and Orange lines during the peak periods. Then during the off peak times, all the trains will be eight cars long. On Wednesday and Thursday, Metro will do the same thing on the Red Line.

On the test days, all the trains -- no matter how long -- will stop at the ends of the platforms. An eight-car train fills the entire platform, so if the electronic message board on the platform is telling you an eight-car train is coming, remember that it's easier to get a seat if you're at waiting at one end or the other. (Many people haven't made the adjustment to the longer trains and tend to cluster in the middle of the platform.)

But if the electronic signs says a six-car train is coming on those days, that means it will stop farther up the platform than usual. So if you tend to wait toward the rear of the platform, you'll want to walk up a bit.