Eight years ago, the Onion published a supposed speech by then President-elect George Bush, called ‘Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over’. How prophetic!

Finally, the long national nightmare of the George W. Bush presidency is over.

Barack Obama took the oath of office today. His inaugural speech was somber, reasoned, cautionary, and in­spi­ra­tional—of a piece with the man.

He faces enormous dif­fi­cul­ties. There are enormous op­por­tu­ni­ties too, if he can but seize them. The polls say that the American people do not expect overnight miracles. I hope we will all remember that a year from now.

Here’s to Obama and his presidency.