# Obama will be sworn in a day late! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546 "2013-01-08T22:13:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/1 "2013-01-08T22:13:30Z")
Barack Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20th, 2009. This year Jan. 20th falls on a Sunday, and apparently we don’t do inaugurations on Sundays, so he will be sworn in for his second term on Monday, Jan. 21st. Does this mean he’s technically not President for 24 hours?? ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/2 "2013-01-08T22:16:10Z")
I believe there is a small private oath ceremony on the Sunday, and the repetition of the oath on Monday is technically redundant. ETA: [a cite](http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2012/03/2013-inaugural-ceremony-to-be-pushed-back-a-day/1#.UOya7dd93eQ) ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/3 "2013-01-08T22:18:37Z")
Reported by the Washington Post he will swear in on Sunday the 20th. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/4 "2013-01-08T22:19:23Z")
> [@a35362](#): > > Does this mean he’s technically not President for 24 hours?? Yeah, for one extra day the presidency is still held by the previous guy, whoever that is.😛 ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/5 "2013-01-08T22:22:21Z")
Anyone else thinking this might cause future historians to wonder if John Boehner was President for a day??? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/6 "2013-01-08T22:23:02Z")
Look up Zachary Taylor, and the David Rice Atchison “presidency”. Obama is president whether he takes the oath on that day or not, and would be even if he wasn’t an incumbent. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/7 "2013-01-08T22:24:03Z")
They’re just covering for the fact that he’s at home for the weekend, in Nairobi. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/8 "2013-01-08T22:25:33Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > Yeah, for one extra day the presidency is still held by the previous guy, whoever that is.😛 Well, yes…but no. Obama’s term expires 4 years from the day he first assumed office. If he doesn’t take the oath until Monday, then some would (wrongfully) say that on Sunday at noon, there is no President until Obama takes a new oath. It’s like the David Rice Atchison “President for One Day” thing which was also wrong. Basically: A President automatically becomes President on Jan 20 at noon. He must only take the oath before he “enters on execution of the powers of his office” or some such wording. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/9 "2013-01-08T22:31:09Z")
OMG! Somebody notify some conservative group! Something must be done about this!! I’m going to use up all the exclamation points there are until someone steps up and deals with this emergency!!! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/10 "2013-01-08T22:34:33Z")
It’s weird; they didn’t want to have the inauguration on a Sunday, so they moved it to a national holiday. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/11 "2013-01-08T22:34:41Z")
> [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](#): > > OMG! Somebody notify some conservative group! Something must be done about this!! I’m going to use up all the exclamation points there are until someone steps up and deals with this emergency!!! You joke, but I am seriously awaiting the flood of Facebook posts from idiots claiming that this means he won’t be president that day, and therefore also not president ever…or something. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/12 "2013-01-08T22:36:15Z")
> [@ctnguy](#): > > I believe there is a small private oath ceremony on the Sunday, and the repetition of the oath on Monday is technically redundant. The calendar repeats exactly every 28 years, so we’ve run into this problem before, too. The “private ceremony Sunday, formal ceremony Monday” procedure was also followed by [Eisenhower in 1957](http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/presidential/1957_inauguration.html) and [Reagan in 1985](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_inauguration_of_Ronald_Reagan). (Eisenhower was the first one for whom this was an issue, since the inauguration date wasn’t set in the Constitution until 1933.) It’s an odd coincidence, by the way, that all three times Inauguration Day has fallen on a Sunday, it has been for a president being sworn in for his second term. But then, relatively few incumbent presidents since 1933 have been defeated in a general election (3 out of 13, if I’m counting right.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/13 "2013-01-08T22:36:38Z")
And the other funny thing is that in 2008, they had the big public swearing-in on January 20, and then a small, private one on January 21 (because the Chief Justice screwed up the wording the first time). This time, the small, private swearing-in is on January 20, and the big public one on January 21. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/14 "2013-01-08T22:45:30Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > It’s weird; they didn’t want to have the inauguration on a Sunday, so they moved it to a national holiday. Guess they’ll have to move the holiday off to Tuesday. Yay, 4-day weekend! Only, not. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/15 "2013-01-08T22:57:21Z")
Anarchy!! _Anarchy!!!_ \ ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/16 "2013-01-08T23:17:26Z")
> [@MikeS](#): > > The calendar repeats exactly every 28 years, so we’ve run into this problem before, too. The “private ceremony Sunday, formal ceremony Monday” procedure was also followed by [Eisenhower in 1957](http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/all_about_ike/presidential/1957_inauguration.html) and [Reagan in 1985](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_inauguration_of_Ronald_Reagan). (Eisenhower was the first one for whom this was an issue, since the inauguration date wasn’t set in the Constitution until 1933.) > > It’s an odd coincidence, by the way, that all three times Inauguration Day has fallen on a Sunday, it has been for a president being sworn in for his second term. But then, relatively few incumbent presidents since 1933 have been defeated in a general election (3 out of 13, if I’m counting right.) Prior to the 20th amendment, inauguration was held to be March 4, whether explicitly spelled out or not, so the question did come up for Zachary Taylor in 1849, when he refused to take the oath on a Sunday. As we have mentioned, he was actually president, oath or no oath. Nitpick - it follows a 28 year cycle provided you don’t cross a non-leap year century. 2100 will not be a leap year, and will not have the same calendar as 2072. Nor will 2101 match 2073. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/17 "2013-01-08T23:25:09Z")
> [@jtgain](#): > > Basically: A President automatically becomes President on Jan 20 at noon. He must only take the oath before he “enters on execution of the powers of his office” or some such wording. This was mentioned at the Jan. 20, 2009 inauguration too. The ceremonies were running a little behind schedule, and the actual swearing-in (the botched one) was an hour or two late (that is, past 12:00 noon). But at exactly noon (Washington time), it was noted that he just became president, oath or no oath. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/18 "2013-01-08T23:37:37Z")
I suppose he is a dollar short too? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/19 "2013-01-08T23:44:07Z")
I expect to hear soon that Shiara law forbids people born in Africa from taking oaths on a Sunday. :rolleyes:😛 ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546/20 "2013-01-08T23:45:05Z")
> [@Kevbo](#): > > I suppose he is a dollar short too? Win! 😛 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-will-be-sworn-in-a-day-late/646546.md?page=2)