President-elect Barack Obama stepped onto a vintage train car, built at a time when a black man’s ascendancy to the presidency was impossible in America, and traveled Saturday to Washington in a three-day prelude to his inauguration as the nation’s 44th president.
As he did throughout his campaign, Mr. Obama evoked imagery of Abraham Lincoln, in word and deed, as he took an abridged version of Lincoln’s journey by rail to the capital before his own inaugural festivities in 1861. The trip offered Mr. Obama one more opportunity to savor his victory before he inherits the challenges that await him.
“While our problems may be new, what is required to overcome them is not,” Mr. Obama said before the train ride began. “What is required is the same perseverance and idealism that our founders displayed. More on this historic train ride at The New York Times.com
