Boy will he be pissed, he never really wanted to be President.
That depends if we can see and physically hold his Official Swearing In Certificate.
And if his ‘swearing in’ was never done or defective in some way… who’s going to enforce keeping Obama or any elected president from doing presidenty things? Congress can only impeach for treason and high crimes… this ain’t that. If someone sues that he’s not president, the Supreme Court will decline to hear it. The military won’t rise up against him.
The only thing that will happen is a bunch of wingnuts declaring his presidency is illegitimate, and we have that already for even more spurious reasons than “he weren’t sworn in proper like!”.
Congress can impeach for any reason they want. “Failing to take the oath of office” is as good as anything else.
Well, it certainly won’t get past the Democratically controlled Senate.
In contrast, in a Westminster parliamentary system the Prime Minister doesn’t need to re-swear, because his appointment as Prime Minister is separate from his election to the Commons; there is no fixed term of office, so he simply continues as PM without any need for a new oath.
I don’t think it’s established that the president needs to re-swear either. All the Constitution says is that the president has to do it “before” exercising his powers. Taking the oath four years in advance is arguably more constitutionally correct as it’s way more before. Anyone who thinks they may become president should probably take the oath right now so that they’ll have taken it as far before as possible.
(A little more seriously, this is why I was unimpressed with the claims that two House members weren’t sworn in when they cast their first votes in 2011. They’d both been re-elected, and had presumably been sworn in several times. Maybe the House has extra rules on that, though.)
He’s not entering, he’s continuing. Why should he have to reaffirm? Did he not mean it before? Can he not trust him to stand by his word? If not, what’s the point in repeating the exercise?
Tradition and a big party.
If the president refused to take the oath of office, you can bet the Senate would convict and remove him in about 30 seconds. The alternative is a situation where we have a president whose authority to act is legally dubious.
They will be drowned out by the wingnuts who voted for him.
I don’t get why the Americans don’t just fix inauguration day to “the second Monday in January” or something.
That would result in tems that were variable in length. Sure only by a few days, but still not fixed.
And it’s not like having terms start on Jan 20 is a major problem that needs to be fixed. Or any kind of problem at all, really.
I did kind of want to see Mitt Romney win just to see how this would have worked. Obviously Romney would have become president on the 20th no matter what, but how would the ceremonies have worked on the 21st? All of the new presidents of the television era have had the whole thing on one day. Would Obama have remained as the fictional ceremonial president for a day longer so he could properly receive the new president and take him down to the Capitol, or would he have just been unceremoniously booted out of the White House, with Mitt Romney moving in at noon sharp on the 20th and traveling alone the next day?
So? Would a president who gets an extra few days get an asterisk beside his record, like Roger Maris?
First David Atchison, and now Roger Maris? I’ve got to study up on my presidents – seems like I’ve missed a few.
Moderator Note
powhaten_boiling, political jabs are not permitted in General Questions. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
He’s not joking, really. The post is obnoxious and smug.
Moderator Note
While I’m at it, these posts also aren’t appropriate for GQ. If you want to indulge in political or personal commentary, take it to another forum.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Maybe there are more than we think. This article in yesterday’s Washington Post says, with no other information, that “most presidents do take the oath privately early on the day of their inauguration before the official ceremony to ensure a smooth transition of power.”