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US President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama (L) and their daughters at St. John's Church, January 21/AFP

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Crowds build for second Obama inauguration

“And after we celebrate, let’s make sure to work as hard as we can to pass on an America that is worthy not only of our past, but also of our future.”

Obama took the oath on Sunday in a private ceremony in the Blue Room of the White House.

Chief Justice John Roberts, who stumbled when swearing in Obama to open his first term in 2009, slowly read each line of the oath out loud, before the president repeated phrases first intoned by George Washington, 224 years ago.

Obama hugged his wife and children Malia, 14, and Sasha, 11, before quipping: “I did it” to his youngest daughter.

Cheeky Sasha shot back: “You didn’t mess up!”

The Constitution states that US presidential terms end at noon on January 20. When that date falls on a Sunday, there is a private swearing-in ceremony before public celebrations and a second oath taking the next day.

Four years on, Obama’s status as the first black president in a nation born on a racial fault line almost seems like an afterthought now — perhaps a sign of progress.

But poignantly, Obama will takes his second, second term oath of office on the federal holiday marking civil rights pioneer King’s birthday.

In another historic echo, Obama will become the second president to be sworn in four times – thanks to the Roberts stumble in 2009 and his double oath duty this year, joining Democratic icon Franklin Roosevelt.

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Obama faces several boiling foreign crises likely to shape his legacy.

The US confrontation with Iran is fast-headed to a critical point with the spectre of military action becoming ever more real the longer diplomacy over Tehran’s nuclear program remains stuck in neutral.

And terror strikes that killed Americans in Benghazi and Algeria call into question Obama’s election year sound bite that “Al-Qaeda is on the run,” despite the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011.

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