Obama takes public oath

President Barack Obama is promising to uphold the Constitution in a public swearing in ceremony that signals the beginning of his second term in office.

Placing his hand on two Bibles -- one used by President Abraham Lincoln at his first Inauguration and one used by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -- Obama took a public oath of office on Monday, after he was sworn in during a private ceremony on Sunday.

The Constitution requires presidential terms to begin on January 20.



Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered Obama's private swearing in on Sunday and the public ceremony Monday.

He also swore Obama in during his first inauguration in 2009.

President Obama said the nation must make the "hard choices" to reduce the cost of health care and the size of the deficit.

But the president said every citizen deserves a basic measure of security and dignity, and he held up Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security as commitments that strengthen America.

Obama referenced the Stonewall gay-rights riots in his inaugural address, classing them as a civil rights watershed along with key moments in the struggles for blacks and women.

The president said that the truth that all are created equal guides us today "just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall."

The Stonewall riots happened in New York City in 1969 when patrons at a gay bar reacted to police harassment, and the events helped found the modern gay-rights movement.

Obama, who has become increasingly outspoken in favor of gay rights and same-sex marriage, also said the nation's journey is not complete "until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law.


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