Gov. McDonnell inaugural remarks: "A Commonwealth of Opportunity"

[Inaugural address of Gov. Bob McDonnell ... January 16, 2010]

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, Lt. Governor Bolling, Attorney General Cuccinelli, Members of the General Assembly, Distinguished guests from around the world and across the country, family and friends, my fellow Virginians….

Good afternoon!

We gather today on the steps of our magnificent and newly renovated State Capitol.

From this hill the land rolls gently down to the James River, the waterway of the Settlers in 1607.

From this place, the sweep of history has moved us forward to today. This is the cradle of democracy for Virginia and America. Governor Thomas Jefferson designed this Capitol building. Governor Patrick Henry came here for the laying of its cornerstone. I am humbled today to follow in their historic footsteps.

The General Assembly first convened in this new building during the first term of America’s first President, Virginia’s George Washington. Behind me, in the Rotunda, are the busts of the eight Virginians who became President.

It was here that Robert E. Lee, the son of a Virginia Governor, was commissioned as Commander of the Commonwealth’s military forces as a young nation split into war. It was here, just four years later, that President Abraham Lincoln came to begin the process of reuniting our war-torn nation, walking the streets of still smoldering Richmond.

And it was here, 125 years after Lincoln’s visit that a grandson of slaves, L. Douglas Wilder, took the Oath of Office as the nation’s first African-American Governor. And it is here, today, that an average middle class kid from Fairfax County, a grandson of Irish immigrants, is given the enormous honor of becoming the 71st Governor of Virginia.

Read the entire inaugural address and see up-close photos here.