President Bush Takes Oath of Office

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 20 -- After a day of speeches, parades and some work, the newly-sworn in President George W. Bush said it was a 'time for dancing' at one of the inaugural balls he and first lady Laura Bush attended tonight.

"Before getting to work, there's some dancing to be done," Bush told a crowd at the inaugural ball for Texas and Wyoming.

Promising to break the 30-second mark for dancing time, President Bush took his wife by the waist and did the box step before more than 10,000 cheering supporters.

The first lady, wearing a floor-length, long-sleeved red sparkling dress with a sequined floral pattern, smiled as her husband looked at his watch.

The Bushes had visited two other inaugural balls earlier in the evening, one at the Ronald Reagan Building and the other in Union Station.

Bush Calls for Civility and Couraged

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Earlier in the day he called for a period of "civility, courage, compassion, and character," George W. Bush took the oath of office today as the nation's 43rd president.

With his father, former president George Bush, standing behind him, the new president was sworn in just after noon on the Capitol steps under a gray, drizzling sky. Bush is only the second son of a former commander-in-chief — John Quincy Adams was the first — to assume the role himself.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist administered the oath of office to Vice President Dick Cheney and then to Bush, who narrowly won one of the most unusual presidential elections in history after a five-week struggle of recounts and legal challenges.

Former Vice President Al Gore, Bush's defeated opponent in the prolonged election, stood nearby on the platform as the new president took the oath.

Bush's wife, Laura, and 19-year-old twin daughters, Jenna andBarbara, stood alongside as he took the oath — his hand on the samehistoric Bible his father used in 1989. The elder Bush stood behind his son, wiping back a tear.

During his inaugural address, which lasted an unusually quick 15 minutes, Bush told the Washington crowd: "I will live and lead by these principles: To advance my convictions with civility; to pursue the public interest with courage; to speak for greater justice and compassion; to call for responsibility, and try to live it as well."