Obama kicks off inauguration celebrations

The Associated Press

President-elect Barack Obama is borrowing a page from history as he kicks off a three-state whistle-stop tour Saturday, boarding a train in sunny, icy Philadelphia for a ride to the city of presidents along the route Abraham Lincoln used nearly 150 years ago.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha, were the center of attention Saturday morning amid plans for his talk to citizens and a six-city train ride originating at Philadelphia's historic 30th treet train station.

For the Obamas, the moment was huge. For Michelle Obama, it was also time to celebrate her 45th birthday.

The president-elect's triumphal day - a time to be heralded by cheering throngs along the roughly 137-mile (220-kilometer) rail route - was starting with a sober discussion of he country's future with 41 people he met during a nearly 2-year-long quest for the White House.

The president-in-waiting will speak and have a round-table session in the grand terminal at Philadelphia before his entourage steps aboard the nearly 80-year-old, chartered Georgia 300 train for its journey.

Although Obama's path tracked Lincoln's and took on the same overtone of high security, it wasn't the journey of virtual secrecy that the 16th president-elect took so long ago when the U.S. was on the brink of civil war.

Obama will travel from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware, where he will pickup Vice President-elect Joe Biden, and Baltimore before arriving at Washington's Union Station, likely after nightfall.

The train will also make "slow rolls" through the towns of Claymont, Delaware, and Edgewood, Maryland, so more people can see Obama waving from the back balcony of the rail car. Curious onlookers also are expected to gather on overpasses, parking lots and commuter train stations to get a glimpse of the president-elect.

During the day, Obama is to deliver a speech before as many as 100,000 at Baltimore's War Memorial Plaza. Pressing the inaugural theme of service and community, event plannrs also called for drives to collect canned food for the needy in Wilmington and Baltimore to coincide with Obama's stops.

The train Obama is using Saturday is the same one he took through politically key Pennsylvania during the primary last April.

In his weekly Saturday radio and Internet address, Obaa said his inauguration Tuesday is a rite of passage that the country marks every four years as a testament to its democratic ideals. He cautioned that its tradition should not be taken for granted.

"We must remember that our nation was founded at a time of kings and queens, and even today billions of eople around the world cannot imagine their leaders giving up power without strife or bloodshed," Obama said.

He noted that peaceful transfers between U.S. presidents have come regardless of circumstance.

"Inaugurations have taken place during times of war and peace; in Depression and prosperity," Obama said. "Our democracy has undergone many changes, and our people have taken many steps in pursuit of a more perfect union. What has always endured is this peaceful and orderly transition of power."

Aides to Obama and President George W. Bush have been working together on a transfer of power that takes place at noon Tuesday. Obama aides have visited the White House to meet with their counterparts and in the past week teamed up for a rehearsal of how to handle a hypothetical terrorist attack on an American city.

In his Saturday address, Obama also previewed themes of Tuesday's inauguration speech, such as the nation's challenge in coping with its economic crisis.

"There is much work to be done. But now, all Americans hold within our hands the promise of a new beginning," he said. "That is why the events of the next several days are not simply about the inauguration of an American president; they will be a celebration of the American people."

Obama said he wouldn't shy from the challenges he inherits of reviving a sickly economy, preserving peace and keeping the nation safe.

"As we approach this time-honored American tradition, we are reminded that our challenges can be met if we summon the spirit that has sustained our democracy since George Washington took the first oath of office," Obama said, citing the nation's first president and the "veneration and love" he shared for his new country.

On Friday, Obama made a pitch for his massive economic stimulus plan at a Midwestern factory that manufactures wind turbine parts, saying his proposal would help create solid jobs in up-and-coming industries.

"Renewable energy isn't something pie in the sky. It's not part of a far-off future. It's happening all across America right now," Obama told workers on Friday in this Cleveland suburb. "It can create millions of additional jobs and entire new industries if we act right now."

Just days before taking the oath of office as the 44th president, Obama used the factory as a backdrop as he sought to generate support from the public - constituents of skeptical Republicans and Democrats in Congress - for his pricey plan to pull the country out of recession.

Obama held the campaign-style event a day after the Senate agreed to give him access to the second half of last fall's $700 billion financial industry bailout and House Democrats unveiled an $825 billion stimulus package.

One of the largest bills ever to make its way through Congress, it calls for federal spending of roughly $550 billion and tax cuts of $275 billion over the next two years to revive the sickly economy. It also focuses heavily on energy, education, health care and jobs-producing highway construction.

Seeking to counter critics' claims of excessive spending and too few tax cuts, Obama cast the package as necessary to create long-lasting, well-paying jobs in industries such as alternative energy, and help hard-hit industrial states such as Ohio now and in the future.

"It's not too late to change course - but only if we take dramatic action as soon as possible," Obama said. He pledged: "The first job of my administration is to put people back to work and get our economy moving again."

Also Friday, two U.S. officials said Obama was preparing to prohibit the use of waterboarding and harsh interrogation techniques by ordering the CIA to follow military rules for questioning prisoners.

The proposal Obama is considering would require all CIA interrogators to follow conduct outlined in the U.S. Army Field Manual, the officials said. The plans would also have the effect of shutting down secret "black site" prisons around the world, they said.

The new rules would abandon a part of outgoing President George W. Bush's counterterrorism policy that has been condemned internationally.

Meanwhile, plans were going ahead for an outdoor inauguration despite cold weather forecasts for next week. Temperatures are expected to be in the 30s (about 0 Celsius).

Somewhere between 1 million and 2 million people are expected to make their way to Washington for the swearing in ceremony and inaugural parade.

Some 240,000 tickets have been issued for the festivities at the Capitol, with 28,000 seats.