Inaugural

Obamas Make Grand Entrance

As throngs sing 'Happy Birthday' to Michelle.

President-elect Barack Obama and his family arrived with the Bidens at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station last night after a 6 1/2-hour train journey that mimicked that made by Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Along the 137-mile trip, the specially commissioned Amtrak train made three stops—Philadelphia, Wilmington, Del., and Baltimore—where Obama delivered speeches from the last car to throngs of supporters. "We are here today not simply to pay tribute to our first patriots but to take up the work that they began," he said. "We have been touched by your grace, and we will fight for you every single day that we are in Washington." The Washington Post reported that "typically so serene," Obama "was visibly affected by the receptions he received" and "beamed in Wilmington as more than 7,000 joined in a chorus to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Michelle Obama, who turned 45 Saturday."