President Obama - Four years left to make good history

Four years after his first inauguration, US President Barack Obama yesterday officially assumed office for the second time in a Capitol Hill ceremony that seemed more rooted in what is possible than the exceptionally optimistic and deeply emotional events of 2009.

Bruised by the cold lessons of over-reach, a certain sobriety supplanted the stardust yesterday.

Mr Obama’s second term did not open with the spine-tingling rhetoric of four years ago, or a cheering, flag-waving million-strong crowd in Washington. How could it? Four years of uncompromising and struggle with everything from the worst economic circumstances since the 1930s and seemingly unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may have tempered Mr Obama’s idea of what can actually be achieved.