As Mr Bush leaves for Texas, life has changed

The day has not disappointed, and continues not to disappoint. President Obama has been sworn in on the dais of the Capitol building, America’s 44th and first African American leader. Sworn in by a chief justice, in John Roberts, whose nomination he voted against. George Bush has left for Texas. Life has changed.

(By the way, if you think you can summarise the legacy of George W Bush in 10 words, the online team wants to hear from you)

I am standing on top of the Canadian embassy at the top of Pennsylvania Avenue. I have direct line of sight to the dais. There are below me perhaps two, perhaps three million people packed the full length of the Washington Mall, from the Capitol to Lincoln’s great memorial 1.9 miles away.

In more than 30 years of reporting I have never seen the like, never seen so many people of so many different hues, never experienced the joy and expectation of so many. I have been to big funerals, coronations, summits, papal anointings. But I have never seen anything on this scale in a western city, in a western nation.

Obama’s speech calls for unity, service, generosity of mind. He talks of America in a winter of discontent. He pledges to work with the poor across the world, to share mutual interest and mutual respect with Muslims, to work tirelessly with friend and foe to end the menace of nuclear war.

For black people across the world this date, 20 January 2009, and for people of all races, whatever happens in the future, however disappointing, will be marked as a day of singular achievement.

Click here for a new take on Barack Obama’s inaugural address.