House of Bush turns inauguration day into a crowning moment for reign of K

[emad]

IndependentBy Rupert Cornwell in Washington
20 January 2005


This is the 55th inauguration day in US history, and in the Cornwell household at least it could not be more special. Our son's high school has been selected to take part in the parade after the President is sworn in. He will be marching in the school's colour guard, carrying the flag of the District of Colombia. A handsome blue uniform has been lovingly pressed, shiny military dress shoes are ready for action. This is his big day.

It is George W Bush's big day as well. An inauguration is this nation's equivalent of a coronation, a four-yearly, utterly American mix of reverent idealism, crass commercialism, noisy protest and ruthless networking. Didn't they get rid of a real King George 229 years ago? Indeed, but few historians would dispute that the office of president is more monarchical than ever. Increasingly, it is a battleground for competing dynasties. Once there were the Roosevelts and the Kennedys. Today it is the House of Bush, and who knows, the House of Clinton. In 2008, the election could pit the brother of the present incumbent against the wife of his predecessor.

But that is to get ahead of the story. The heart of today's proceedings is the address Mr Bush will deliver immediately after he takes the oath of office at noon. Its themes are already known, a ringing commitment of America's mission to spread democracy and liberty across the world, and to build an "ownership society" of enterprise and prosperity at home. He is an iconoclast, whose ambition is to enter history as one of the great transformational presidents. His first term was shaped by the terrorist attacks of September 2001. If he has his way the second will be dominated by domestic initiatives: social security reform, an overhaul of the tax code, and an effort to stamp out excesses of tort legislation.

Some inaugural addresses have been memorable; Lincoln's second in 1865 as the Civil War was ending ("with malice towards none, with charity for all") is regarded as the greatest of all. Then there was Franklin Roosevelt's 1933 call to arms in the depths of the Depression - "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" - and JFK's stirring call in 1961: "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." Most have been undistinguished. "Sonorous nonsense" was how H L Mencken described Warren Harding's effort in 1921. (It would be unfair this morning to recall another Mencken prophesy, that "on some great and glorious day ... the White House will be adorned by a downright moron".)

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