Is the President required to take a 2nd Oath of Office?

[Cliffy]

The federal government is not paying for the security costs associated with the inauguration (mostly), instead relying on the D.C. to handle the cost of the increased police personnel, etc. This is contrary to the tradition of at least the last several inagurations.

As a person who spends most of his day in D.C., I have to say this is pretty upsetting, but given the forum I shan’t go further.

–Cliffy

[eyewitness]

Had President Bush been unable for whatever reason to be sworn in today at noon, then at the stroke of noon his presidency would be over and presumably the Speaker of the House would become Acting President.

Just a question–in that case, wouldn’t the elected Vice President (whether newly elected or re-elected) be sworn in as VP and then would immediately become Acting President? Wouldn’t both the President and the VP have to be unable to serve for the Speaker to be involved?

[Walloon]

Remember — a president elect, or a re-elected president, does not have to take the oath of office to become president, he has to take the oath to execute the office, i.e., actually do something in office. So, if for some reason the president elect were not able to take the oath at noon on January 20, he would still become president automatically at that time.

[Mike_H]

The relevent part of the constitution is the 20th ammendment, which says in part:

If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President-elect shall have died, the Vice President-elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President-elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President-elect nor a Vice President-elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

So yes, eyewitness, if President-elect Bush died before his term began today, then yes , Vice-President elect Cheney would automatically be President at noon (no need to swear him in as vice-President). If President-elect Bush “failed to qualify” (e.g., he was under 35 years old, not a native born citizen, etc.) Cheney would become president. But if he didn’t show up at noon to take the oath for whatever reason (flat tire, illness, terrorist attack), he is still President (as noted above), he just can’t discharge any duites until he does so. Of course there’s nothing preventing him from taking the oath anywhere and anytime, even before his term begins. In fact he did take it a few minutes before noon, at least by my clock, and of course the vice-president takes his oath even before then.

I don’t know if failure or permanent inability (e.g., he had a stroke or something) or refusal to take the oath would be regarded as “failure to qualify”, or whether in fact we just have a President who can’t do anything. Maybe it would’ve been better if Bush hadn’t taken the Oath today (Sorry!)