Two sisters from Bermuda who travelled to the US for Barack Obama's inauguration hope Premier Ewart Brown will take a leaf out of his book and strive for inclusivity.

Bradlyn DeShield from Southampton was joined by sister Elizabeth Isaac, 77, from Pembroke, in her visit to Washington DC. Together with friends, they toured the capital as preparations were underway but dared not brave the crowds yesterday, and watched the ceremony on TV.

"The atmosphere was one of total elation, you can't describe it. We were passing around the tissues," said Dr. DeShield, a medical doctor. "The President gave a speech that was straightforward and to the point. He's so very articulate and what we also like is he's so cool-faced and in control. He can be Presidential and speaks to the people from the heart and they feel it. That's why he's there and people came out to see him from all walks of life, because he wants to represent people from all backgrounds."

Asked how she felt the new President might impact her home Island, Dr. DeShield said: "I would very much hope that our current Dr. Brown took a leaf out of his book and came across as all-inclusive. After all, we all make up Bermuda. I really hope he and his Cabinet can move away from this divisiveness and represent Bermuda and all the people of Bermuda and that does not seem to be the case."

In November, Dr. Brown appeared to suggest that white Bermudian voters would have backed white Presidential candidate John McCain and not Obama, based on a tendency to vote along racial lines.

He told the House of Assembly: "If you looked at the voting patterns in Bermuda, which all vote in lines, if whites in Bermuda were to vote in the US using the same lines, they would have voted for the other man."

His remarks provoked a firestorm of controversy. Referring to the broad support Obama received in the US, Dr. DeShield, who is black, said: "With the propaganda machine he (Dr. Brown) commanded, the perpetuation of the party lines because of his divisiveness, technically he's quite right. However if he had shown the leadership qualities that we need, that we're all sisters and brothers, then we would have had a similar result that we have seen in the United States."

Mrs. Isaac, a retired teacher, said the Presidential inauguration made her think of her father John DeShield, who was Bermuda's oldest war veteran when he died aged 99 last January.

"Tomorrow is one year since he passed. He would have been elated," she said. "It's so overwhelming, the man's outlook for the future and how we can get there if we decide to work together to put aside the foolish differences that we have put upon ourselves, forgetting that we are all human beings and we're not responsible for the colour of our skin or where we were born. We need to put it aside and realise we're brothers and sisters."