"Yes, we can" was the motto of Obama's campaign. The U.S. has elected its first African-American president, 232 years after the country's Declaration of Independence and 40 years after Martin Luther King's famous speech "I have a dream". Barack Obama has been sworn in as the 44th U.S. president on 20 of January in 2009. Listen to his inauguration song. Barack Obama declared "change has come to America".