The Obama do-over is about to begin Presented by BIDEN’S BIG BET — Joe Biden will take the oath of office Wednesday against one of the darkest political backdrops in the nation’s inaugural history. He’ll stand in a spot where two weeks earlier a mob launched an insurrection to block a final procedural step in his victory, not far from where a week earlier the current U.S. president was impeached for encouraging the riot. He’ll look out at a National Mall locked down like never before, protected by troops like never before. And he’ll be surrounded by a sparse crowd of masked VIPs sitting in socially distanced chairs, a stark reminder of a pandemic that each day kills as many Americans as died on 9/11.