Top Row: President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Bob Woodward, Teresa Heinz Kerry, John Kerry, Don Graham, Adrian and Michelle Fenty, Vice President Joseph Biden and Jill Biden. Second row: Rep. Barney Frank, Desirée Rogers, Victoria and Sen. Ted Kennedy, Valerie Jarrett, Timothy Geithner, Eric Holder and Sharon Malone, Peter Orzsag, Jane Stanton Hitchcock. Third row: Sen. Mark Warner, Alexandra Wentworth and George Stephanopolous, Justice Antonin Scalia, Elizabeth and George Stevens, Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Queen Noor, Robert Duvall, Roger Sant. Fourth row: Katharine Weymouth, Justice Stephen Breyer, Sheila Johnson, Plácido Domingo, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Amb. Pierre Vimont, Ted and Annette Lerner, Sen. Harry Reid.
Big changes are always in store when a new president takes office. The “out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new” transition of power is even more historic when a change of party occurs (check) and especially when a two-term presidency ends (double check). Barack and Michelle Obama are also younger than their predecessors (they were born at the end of the Baby Boom era; the Bushes at its very beginning), and, most relevant of all, are the first African-Americans to occupy the White House.
