Inauguration Unfurls Under Watchful Eyes

George W. Bush begins his second term as president today amid celebration and pageantry tempered by the tightest security in inaugural history.

The presidential oath of office, scheduled for noon EST, is the high point of a day in which Bush also will deliver an address on Capitol Hill, lead a parade along a 1.7-mile route to the White House and dance with his wife, Laura, at nine official black-tie inaugural balls.

In his address, which is expected to last about 17 minutes, Bush will focus on America’s role in spreading democracy and freedom. “We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion,” he will say, according to excerpts released by the White House. “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”

As the nation’s capital completed preparations Wednesday for the quadrennial ceremony -- the 55th in the nation’s history -- two inches of snow coated the bunting-draped West Front of the Capitol, and officials readied contingency plans to move the ceremony indoors.

The National Weather Service predicted a mostly cloudy Inauguration Day, with the temperature in the low 30s and a chance of snow at noon, the time at which his first term expires.

By historic standards, Wednesday’s dusting of snow hardly registered. More than an inch of rain fell during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second inaugural in 1937, sending many in the crowd of 200,000 to Union Station a few blocks from the Capitol. On the morning that President Reagan was to publicly take the oath of office in 1985, the temperature was so cold -- 4 degrees -- that officials moved the ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda and canceled the parade.

This year, in addition to contending with possible weather problems, inaugural organizers have had to deal with heightened security for the first such event since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Downtown Washington has been transformed into a virtual fortress, with concrete barricades and security fences at almost every intersection. About 2,000 police officers from 85 law enforcement agencies across the country are on hand to help about 4,000 members of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, the U.S. Park Police and the U.S. Capitol Police.

As of Wednesday afternoon, many congressional staffers, guests and media personnel had yet to receive the credentials that would grant them access to the swearing-in. The problem, several sources said, was a bottleneck in background checks being conducted by the Capitol Police.

Striving to keep out terrorists, officials instead created a state of high anxiety for many Capitol regulars, who fretted that they might not be allowed to witnesses the pomp and circumstance that is considered a perk of toiling long hours in Congress.

On the day before his second inauguration, Bush and his wife took a private tour of the National Archives, where they viewed the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and some of President Washington’s personal effects -- including his handwritten first inaugural address.

Did the 43rd president have history on his mind?

“Absolutely,” Bush told reporters.

Despite a windchill factor in the single digits, the president joined thousands of his supporters for a “Celebration of Freedom” concert on the Ellipse, the grassy expanse between the White House and the Washington Monument. “No night is too cold to celebrate freedom,” Bush told the crowd.

He and his wife capped the day’s celebrations at the Black Tie and Boots Ball, sponsored by the Texas State Society.

About 12,000 people took over the entire public space at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel, munching on barbecue and peach cobbler, dancing to Lyle Lovett and Clay Walker and shopping at the Texas Fair & Market Place, which featured booths as diverse as the Stetson Hat Co. and the Fort Worth Zoo.

Kiki Peckham said she and her husband, Will, who owns Round Rock Travel in Austin, would have come to the party no matter who had won the election. Bush’s victory, she said, “is a big bonus.”

Although Texans predominated, not everyone was from the Lone Star State. Mary Ann Silberbauer quit her job as an auditor in New Jersey to work for Bush. Her daughter, Noelle, was in a subway train beneath the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, but survived the attack.

“It changed my view,” Silberbauer said. “I will never think the same way again.”

Then she and her husband stood next to a presidential cardboard cutout and, as the camera flashed, smiled.