Slo-mo replay, with analysis, of Presidential Oath.

[nitrah55]

I've watched the oath-taking a couple of times, just to see what happened.

BHO jumped his line, starting "I, Barack Hussein Obama," right after CJR said it, even as CJR was continuing the line with, "do solemnly swear." Realizing what he did, BHO started over when CJR finished his line, saying "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear."

It may have been hearing that verbal mis-stip that caused CJR to muff the next line, because he followed with:

"...that I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully...," substituting "to" for "of" and putting "faithfully" at the end of the phrase rather than before "execute."

BHO then says, "that I will execute-" and then stops, either because he realizes that CJR muffed the line, or he sees that CJR realizes he muffed the line. BHO looks at CJR and gives a little nod, which I think indicates that CJR signaled that he wanted to go back.

There's some overlap then, but CJR says "...faithfully execute the office of President of the United States," after which BHO says "...I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully," echoing CJR's first version, but putting the "of" back where it belongs.

After that, it all goes swimmingly.

CJR appears not to have had any notes or prompter, so they were both working without a net.

BHO did in fact, say all of the words of the oath, some of them twice, one out of order, but he said all of it.

Not that it matters. As we all know, the incoming president assumes office automatically at noon on January 20, regardless of whether the oath is delivered at that time, even as a VP succeeds to the office upon the death of a President, even if the oath has not yet been delivered.

[ghostjmf]

There's a professor at BU (that would be Boston University, for the uninitiates) who claims "Obama will have to read the oath again or he's not president". In my non-legal opinion, this belief belongs in the squirrel cage along with several other lulus.

In interviews, Obama is taking all blame for the misreading, but in my hearing, Roberts mis-spoke that section, & Obama paused because what he heard was not what he'd probably memorized, & he didn't want to repeat it with the wrong wording, though after a pause he did.

The network my job "gather around" TV was tuned to, CNN, kept saying that as of 12:00pm 1/20/09 he was president, whether he'd read the oath yet or not. Which would agree with you.

(It was a fairly wide-screen Sony plasma TV that apparently is missing an "S" cable, or whatever. Everything & every one appears silvered. No-one wanted to mess with the color tuning & miss the event.)

[trevor_macfee]

Interesting (at least to me) stuff I learned this morning:

The 20th Amendment says . . .
"The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January . . ."

But Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution says. . .

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

So, one way to interpret this is that the term begins at noon but the president can't do anything (execute the office) until he takes the oath.

That's the basis for some folks saying Obama's not "really" president until he takes the oath.

Apparently, Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur had do-overs.

I think it's all pretty silly, but I guess he should just do the oath thing again and get on with being president.

Of course, it may have been intentional on CJ Robert's part - he is beholden to the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy after all. (Please insert a or a "In My Opinion" or a "Certainly" as is your preference.)

[frogman042]

I'm surprised no one has figured out the Chief Justice Roberts was secretly replaced by the Dread Pirate Roberts.

---Jay

[Jeemie]

Where's Snoring Fern?

This is boring...I already got enough humor points out of it watching the hard right-wingers on their right-wing boards trip over themselves ragging on Obama for it! (The best was a poster who wrote these exact words while ragging on Obama for screwing up: "Obama triped on the Oath Of Office......will the lib medai report that?")

[Thousandaire]

Why was the VP's oath different?

Are we to assume the President takes the office without mental reservation, whereas the VP was coerced (hey, I said I wanted to be Sec'y of State!)

[andrewjackson]

Why was the VP's oath different?

Are we to assume the President takes the office without mental reservation, whereas the VP was coerced (hey, I said I wanted to be Sec'y of State!)

I'm guessing the VP oath is different because that person is not becoming President.

Also, it is the same oath as the members of Congress and for most of our history the VP took the oath in the Senate. In 1933 they changed to have the VP sworn in at the same ceremony as the President.

[nitrah55]

There's no oath of office for VP in the constitution, so the VP takes the oath senators take.

[tubadave]

I'm a little surprised that this has been such a major point of discussion.


The Chief Justice flubbed the wording a bit.

Obama was lost without a teleprompter.


I don't see anything newsworthy here.

[MarleysGh0st]

I don't see anything newsworthy here.

That's never stopped us before!

[Thousandaire]

Obama's presidency is doomed. He was sworn in during a void-of-course moon. That's also why the oath was messed up.