New President Barack Obama calls for hope amid cold reality

Others who face a more protracted process include Labor nominee Hilda L. Solis, Treasury nominee Timothy F. Geithner, attorney general nominee Eric H. Holder Jr. and Transportation nominee Ray LaHood.

The delays are expected to be temporary.

Obama also still needs to pick a Commerce secretary nominee to replace Bill Richardson, who withdrew from consideration in the midst of a scandal in his home state, New Mexico.

The finality of the transfer of power was signaled in small ways as well as large. A picture of Bush vanished from the White House website shortly after noon, and Obama's portrait appeared its place.

Obama was quick to acknowledge that he was taking office in challenging times, both domestic and foreign, including an economic crisis as ominous as any since Franklin D. Roosevelt moved into the White House amid the Great Depression.

"Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred," he said. "Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age."

Getting out of the domestic morass, Obama said, will require a more active role for government.

Indirectly rejecting President Clinton's assertion in 1996 that the era of big government was over, Obama said, "The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified."

On foreign policy, Obama vowed to outlast and ultimately defeat terrorists, but he also went out of his way to extend his hand to the Muslim world.

He also declared that the United States would once more play the role of world leader: "We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet."

"The challenges we face are real. They are serious, and they are many," the president said. "They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America -- they will be met."

Inauguration Day dawned with hundreds of thousands of people assembling to watch events unfold -- and to cheer, sing and tell stories.

In the crowd, there was sustained booing of Bush at some points in the program.

At the congressional lunch that followed the Bushes' departure by helicopter, Obama worked the room like a bridegroom at a wedding. When Kennedy became ill, Obama reminded the crowd in a halting voice that Kennedy had been in the Senate to support passage of the Voting Rights Act.

"So I would be lying to you if I did not say that right now a part of me is with him," Obama said.

Michelle Obama joined her husband to review the troops on the steps of the Capitol. When Obama went to shake the hand of the military officer at his side, he appeared startled when he got a salute instead as the new commander in chief.

But Obama and the new first lady were all smiles and ease as they walked a length of their parade route, the silver collar of Michelle Obama's lemongrass dress glinting in the afternoon sun.

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cparsons@tribune.com

peter.nicholas@latimes.com