At a cost of $40 million from his most dedicated supporters, the US yesterday inaugurated its 43rd President for a second time. George Bush used the occasion to send a message to the rest of the world that America identifies its interest, its very safety, with their freedom, and pledged his administration to an activist global policy that will support all those struggling against tyranny.
"Freedom" has replaced weapons of mass destruction as the ostensible rationale of US foreign policy.
"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," he insisted, adding that "America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal instead is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom... " The speech, in which he used the words "freedom" 27 times and "liberty" 15, did not refer specifically to Iraq once, or to terrorism, but hinted that he would not be pulling US troops out soon. "Our country has accepted obligations" - from whom, one might ask - "that are difficult to fulfil, and would be dishonourable to abandon".
His message to allies - "We honour your friendship, we rely on your counsel, and we depend on your help"- suggested a greater willingness to listen and an understanding that the US cannot go it alone. Time will tell.
And with "freedom" clearly such powerful medicine, Mr Bush sought somewhat unconvincingly to imbue his domestic policies with the same lofty values. He promised to create an "ownership society", a Republican project to make every American a shareowner with the conservative values they believe will follow. That theme is central to Mr Bush's determination to press ahead with his most controversial policy, the reform of the social security or pension system. It is a radical project to allow taxpayers remove part of their savings from the safety of the state system to invest on their own and has caused alarm even in the ranks of his own party.
The evidence yesterday was of a President determined to press on with a radical agenda at home and abroad. Yet many warn of the inevitability that he will be dragged down from such ambitions by events and the so-called "second-term curse", the reality that not one of the post-war presidents did better in their second terms than in their first. Indeed Mr Bush starts his second term with only 52 per cent of the electorate approving of his performance overall, according to the latest poll. Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan enjoyed better than 60 per cent support as they began their second terms.