Obama's inauguration theme: "Faith in America's Future"

The theme for President Obama's second inauguration will be "Faith in America's Future," Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced today.

Schumer, the chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, said the theme was chosen to celebrate the United State's "perseverance and unity." It is also, perhaps, an implicit acknowledgement of the fact that Mr. Obama's reelection took place against the backdrop of an economy that has yet to fully recover from the 2008 financial crisis.

The theme will also mark the 150th anniversary of the Statute of Freedom being placed on top of the partly constructed Capitol Dome in 1863, which the committee calls a transformation year.

A news release by the inaugural committee says the year 1863 is "one of the most fateful in our nation's history" because of the Civil War, the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, the transcontinental railroad and the first land grant college.

"Our nation has faced countless challenges throughout its history, and each time we have come together as Americans and moved forward with renewed strength," Schumer said in a statement.

The inaugural committee is made up of a bipartisan group of House and Senate leaders. It is responsible for planning and implementing the ceremonies to officially swear in the president.

Mr. Obama's second inauguration will be the 57th presidential inauguration. While the president will be officially sworn in on the constitutionally mandated date of January 20, that date falls on a Sunday, so the ceremony will take place on Monday, January 21.