国际英语新闻：Obama to stress "responsibility" in inaugural address

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration address will stress "responsibility" by calling on Americans to embrace a new era of good behavior, his aides said on Sunday.

    "Responsibility" and "getting our country back on track" is the core theme of the speech, incoming White House Press Secretary Rob Gibbs told Fox News.

    He said the president-elect wrote the speech himself, and the bulk of it has been finished by now.

    "We need more responsibility and accountability certainly in the way our government acts. We have to have it certainly in many of our financial institutions that sort of have gotten us to where we are in this economic crisis today," said Gibbs.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (L) and Vice President elect Joe Biden (C) lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, Jan. 18, 2009

    "Obviously the American people are all going to have to give some," he added, noting that the address will also try to stress that "those that have had the short end of the stick for the last few years will get the help that they need."

    Gibbs said that the country is at a crossroads, as it has been before, and "we always find ourselves -- at least this country always has -- doing what is necessary to make this country and the lives of the American people better for each and every generation that follows."

    Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice for White House chief of staff, said Obama's Tuesday speech will ask the nation to reject the "culture of anything goes."

    Emanuel told NBC that the president-elect will ask Americans to restore a national value system that honors responsibility and accountability.

    Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, and will give his inaugural speech after swearing-in on the west front of the Capitol building.