WASHINGTON — With a call for service and sacrifice that many politicians would avoid at all costs, President Barack Obama’s first address to the nation as its leader inspired many of the estimated two million who attended Tuesday’s inaugural ceremonies to return home with a renewed sense of shared responsibility and hope for the future.

In firm command of his audience and the office he now holds, Obama apparently made a conscious decision to forgo the grand sweep of the celebrated speeches he delivered for two years on the campaign trail. In his inaugural address, which will be exhaustively dissected and compared to his initiatives as the clock starts on his first 100 days in the White House, Obama told the American people what many seemed to be longing to hear.

The message was clear: that his presidency will be less about him and more about converting the energy and enthusiasm surrounding his historic candidacy into a truly bottoms-up movement for change; he’ll need the help of all Americans to begin fixing the wrecked economy, and to change the face of a foreign policy that routinely brings us to the brink of disaster in hot spots around the world.

“That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood,” Obama said. “Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”

His presidency, he said, would be defined by a call “to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

His early and unwavering opposition to the deeply unpopular war in Iraq, a conflict of choice that has needlessly cost thousands of U.S. lives, helped propel the new commander-in-chief to the heights of political power. Nowhere on the planet is the foreign policy crisis more acute, and in his address Obama pledged to make good on his promise to immediately begin forging a new path in our dealings with the international community.

“Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions,” he said. “They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. We are the keepers of this legacy, guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort, even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We’ll begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan.”

For a president who has promised to further bring the work of the Oval Office into the participatory digital age, one of the more significant initiatives in the early days of his transition to power occurred not at a podium on the west steps of the Capitol, but on the popular Web site where supporters continue to flock for information on all things Obama.

Contributors and others inquiring about inaugural ceremony news were asked to fill out detailed surveys, from which Obama’s political team can gauge public interest in building a groundswell of support and input on his policies. Asked about their volunteer habits during the campaign, supporters were asked to denote specific issues (ranging from war to criminal justice) they are interested in working on during the administration.

What does this say about the new leader of the free world? Although the ways in which this information is ultimately used remains to be determined, what it says at the outset of this administration is that, far from distancing himself from his background as a community organizer, this new president is embracing it in the context of exercising presidential power. Not only is this brand of decision-making probably unprecedented in the Oval Office, it speaks to a commitment to involve the American people in the policy-making process.

Should this strategy find success, it would probably not be a surprise to the president; this wide-net inclusiveness, from fund-raising to organizing an incredible number of campaign offices across the country, is what allowed him to score an electoral victory for the ages. As his election showed the world, when the people come together around a cause, unlikely as it may seem, anything is possible.

“What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility, said Obama on Tuesday morning, in what could be seen as a summation of his goals for the nation whose values he is now sworn to protect and defend.

“A recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task. This is the price and the promise of citizenship.”