This news analysis was written for CNN Interactive. Those of us who live and breathe Washington revel in the pomp, history, words and meaning of moments like this.
Inaugurations define presidents and their times.
The next few days will give us the opening words to the next chapter of this nation's story. You can almost smell the food at the parties. You can close your eyes and sense the drama, eloquence and passion of these quadrennial occasions. In his brief inaugural in 1865, Abraham Lincoln urged healing and forgiveness to move the country beyond the Civil War, a conflict that claimed the lives of a half-million Americans. We are still working at it.