President George W. Bush was inaugurated for a second term yesterday and made a sweeping pledge to spread liberty and freedom to the "darkest corners of the world" before leading the traditional inaugural parade from Capitol Hill to the White House.
Mr Bush remained in his limousine for most of the 2.5 kilometre route, but he stepped out with his wife, Laura, to walk along the last two blocks past cheering crowds of supporters.
Last night Mr Bush and the First Lady made the rounds of nine balls climaxing the $40 million inauguration celebrations.
Defeated presidential candidate John Kerry applauded Mr Bush's inauguration speech from a prominent seat among the nation's political dignitaries. But it was Mr Bush who won the bitterly-contested election on November 2nd and who approached the podium precisely at noon yesterday - as demanded by the constitution - to take the oath of office. Only the 16th president to serve a second term, he was sworn in by Chief Justice William Rehnquist (80), who has thyroid cancer but was able to make his way to the podium alone with the help of a walking stick.
There were scattered protests along the 2.5 kilometre parade route: a snowball struck Vice-President Dick Cheney's car close to its fuel tank and, some distance away, police used pepper spray against a group of anti-war demonstrators.
At one point, what appeared to be a gas canister billowed white smoke from the centre of the road as the limousines passed. Through the tinted windows of his black limousine Mr Bush would have been able to see slogans held aloft by protesters - some with their backs turned - reading: "Bush Lies" and "Bring the Troops Home".
The parade featured 46 marching bands, including two Emerald Pipe Bands from the New York Police Department, the University of Texas Longhorn Band and the Crawford High School Band from Mr Bush's home town.
While the ceremonies marking the peaceful transfer of power traditionally feature pomp and ceremony, a Gallup poll yesterday showed that most Americans - 54 per cent - felt that they should have been toned down because of the war in Iraq.
Security was so intense that long lines of people, both supporters and opponents of the president, were still waiting in queues at 13th and 14th Streets to get through metal detectors as the president's limousine passed by. Snipers dressed in black scanned the crowds from rooftops and hundreds of police stood shoulder to shoulder along the route. Riot police and soldiers were out in force in the side streets, where protesters had gathered.
In his inaugural address, delivered before a vast crowd beneath the steps of the Capitol, Mr Bush used the word "freedom" 27 times to underline his theme of spreading democracy to the world. "All who live in tyranny and hopelessness can know: the United States will not ignore your oppression or excuse your oppressors. When you stand for your liberty, we will stand with you," he said.
Several hundred people attended an anti-war protest at Du Pont Circle, away from the parade route. Among them was Ms Sam Joi, who drove a "peace van" from Oakland, California, to join the protest. She had come, she said, to resist the president's policies on Iraq and to protest at the use of American resources to "kill people in other countries".