Most of today’s newspapers are devoting coverage to tomorrow’s US Presidential Inauguration.

Press reviewed by Danuta Isler

“Obama in the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln” front-pages Gazeta Wyborcza publishing a photograph of Barack Obama aboard a special rail service to Washington. In a story by its American correspondent called “Obama, i.e. the new Reagan” the paper writes that president Obama will have to redefine what is America and lists describing its new place in the world among the biggest challenges of the 44th US president. “Obama will have to find a new model for the country if he wants to stay in the White House longer than four years,” writes the paper.

“A comedian or a president?” asks Dziennik writing that George W. Bush is leaving office as the least popular American President who has lost basically on every front – political, military and economic. The daily claims that the 43rd American president leaves behind a legacy including a collection of anecdotes, slips of the tongue, faux pas and blunders. The article is accompanied by a series of photographs presenting the outgoing president in various embarrassing situations.

SuperExpress tabloid presents a pictorial of the White House explaining to its readers the characteristics of each of its rooms, including queen’s bedroom for visiting members of royal families or beauty parlor for first ladies. Most papers also include information about the possibility of watching live coverage of the event tomorrow on major Polish networks. Residents of Warsaw, for example, will be able to view the event on big TV screens in the capital’s Hard Rock Café at 5.30 p.m. local time.

“What is the Polish community in the US hoping for?” asks in a related story Rzeczpospolita daily. It publishes an interview with Frank Spula, chairman of the Polish-American Congress, entitled “America will not turn its back on Poland”. According to Spula, the biggest expectation of the Polish community in the US towards the new American president is connected with the abolition of visas for Poles. He argues that with an estimated 10 million Polish nationals currently living in the US the Congress hopes Barack Obama will not ignore the interests of such a large group. Spula also says that the Polish-American Congress will use its 65th anniversary as well as Poland’s 10th anniversary of NATO membership coming up this year as opportunities to try to establish good relations with the new US administration.

Marking the beginning of the 4th Week of Fighting with Cervical Cancer and the launch of a nationwide information campaign Dziennik publishes an article titled “Myths and facts connected with the HPV contraction”. According to the paper, the awareness of the Human papillomavirus or HPV which causes cervical cancer is still slim in this country with Polish ladies too rarely going for examination or vaccination to prevent the contraction of HPV. Among the most common myths connected with HPV are the facts that only older women or those with many sexual partners are at risk or that pap smear screenings help prevent contraction while in fact they help identify precancerous changes. Cervical cancer is one of the most common types of cancers in Poland with five women dying because of it every day.