Barack Obama: 44th President.

Byline: Portraits by Annie Leibovitz THE EDITORS

At VOGUE, we are in the business of defining change. We are sensitive to and knowledgeable about the constant flux in which, as cultural and social beings, we (and especially women) find ourselves. It's what we do. But when, on a mild evening in November 2008, Senator Barack Obama took the stage in Chicago with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, it was a moment of such electricity and emotion that none of us at the magazine could remember the likes of itnot even those of us who voted for John F. Kennedy.

This month, President Obama embarks on as tough a term of office as possibly any president before him, save perhaps FDR and Abraham Lincoln. As the president-elect noted in his victory speech, "The challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetimetwo wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."

But we at VOGUE, like President Obama, have always believed in and celebrated the American genius for adaptation and self-renewal. In particular, we have always valued those who share our view of change: It is a matter not of enforcing one's will on others but of inspiring others to follow. Change is about making choices, but choosing change for the good is an expression of our humanity. We recognize in our new president an actual rather than a notional compassion, an impressive and unapologetic intelligence, and the self-assurance of a natural leader. We will, of course, duly discover his limitations, and in the years to come we will no doubt argue with his judgment. But we are all entitled to beginnings and their excitements; and at this hard beginning America may, and indeed must, look to its new leader with a smile.

In the world of style, there is obviously unprecedented interest in our new First Family, who presented such an extraordinary spectacle in Grant Park, not least when joined by the family of Vice President Joseph Biden. To have two dynamic and modern families in and around the White House is itself a source of invigoration. The First Lady, ...