Responsibility is the Theme of Obama's Inauguration Speech, Aides Say

Barack Obama's inauguration address will stress "responsibility" by calling on Americans in government and business to embrace a new era of proper behavior.

"Getting our country back on track," is the core theme of the speech, said Obama Press Secretary Rob Gibbs, adding that the president-elect wrote the bulk of it as it is now.

"We need more responsibility and accountability certainly in the way our government acts. We have to have it certainly in many of our financial institutions that sort of have gotten us to where we are in this economic crisis today," he said.

"Obviously the American people are all going to have to give some," Gibbs added, noting that the address will also try to stress that "those that have had the short end of the stick for the last few years (will) get the help that they need."

Gibbs said that the country is at a crossroads, as it has been before, and "we always find ourselves -- at least this country always has -- doing what is necessary to make this country and the lives of the American people better for each and every generation that follows."

Rahm Emanuel, Obama's choice for chief of staff, said Obama's speech Tuesday will ask the nation to reject the "culture of anything goes."

Emanuel said Obama will ask Americans to restore a national value system that honors responsibility and accountability. It harkens back to John F. Kennedy's call for personal sacrifice in his 1960 inauguration address.

Emanuel appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Gibbs appeared on "FOX News Sunday."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.