My point was that I am convinced (and I believe most of us are) that Obama gave the oath sincerely, even if the wording did not match the text in the Constitution exactly. Purpose of oath is fulfilled, as far as I am concerned.
Should he have been denyed Secret Service protection for the time period when he realises he needs to ask for a do-over, and the actual do-over?
The oath was given (and administered) in good faith. Isn’t intent important here?
Guys, guys, the precise wording of the oath is irrelevant. Look at the 20th amendment:
A careful perusal will clearly reveal that nowhere does it specify EST! His oath was inoperative regardless of the wording because in the vast majority of the US it was not yet noon! :eek:
If he had taken a minute or two to think about it, maybe he would have come to the same conclusion. But it was real-time, and you may have noticed that there were quite a few people watching.
BTW - how many people were watching it live? Hundreds of millions I’d think.
I read today that Roberts left out the word “execute” in his second attempt - which might be why Obama went with Robert’s first try despite the mistaken word order. But I thought Obama said all the words.
Except “fnord”.
roberts reminded me of the vicar in 4 weddings and a funeral. i did laugh a bit. perhaps it would have been better to let pres. obama just do it on his own.
are you ready to say the oath?
yes.
please proceed.
recites oath.
congratulations!
all better, everyone happy.
FYI, BBC World News America reported that the chief justice visited the White House today and administered the oath again.
I would prefer it if the President-elect would simply recite the 35 words without any prompting at all. A president too stupid to memorize that length of language, given two and a half months prep time, is far too stupid to be sworn in at all.
This suggestion would certainly have spared us Bush entirely. That dumb fuck would still be reciting it in his mirror every night: “Ah, George Dubya Bush, do solemnly swear that Ah will faithlessly–uh, damn. I almost dud it right agin, Laura!”
:eek:
But what about the “executive” orders signed before then? And all the people “confirmed” by the “Senate”?
He became President at noon Eastern yesterday. It doesn’t matter when he took the oath.
Perhaps he’s President, but not empowered to “execute the office” (whatever that precisely means):
Also, from here:
ETA: I was mostly joking in my first post, but if they’re redoing the oath, he ought to re-sign any orders as well.
BBC mentioned that Obama is actually the third US president to have had to retake the oath of office but did not say who the other two were. Anyone know?
BBC also pointed out that Roberts apparently took pride at never referring to his notes when he was a lawyer in court, and so he must have wanted to show he could administer the oath from memory. D’oh! He just discovered why all the previous chief justices read the oath.
He’s still considered the president from 12 noon Tuesday, so I’m sure anything he signed still stands, but they did this just to be on the safe side, to guard against nuts like those that claim income tax is illegal because of Ohio not being a state when it was ratified or some such nonsense.
Various sites have made various claims and it’s too late now for me to track down the veracity of each.
Those I’ve seen are Rutherford Hayes and Woodrow Wilson doing private ceremonies on a Sunday before the full blown inaugural on Monday, and Chester Arthur and Calvin Coolidge doing quick informal swearings-in with those officials on hand after the unexpected news of the president dying and then redoing the oath in more august settings in Washington.
So Obama would be at least the fifth.
I just thought of LBJ. Didn’t some lady judge swear him in aboard a plane en route back to Washington? Did he have to retake it?
I’m wondering now if BBC meant the third president to have to take it again because it was flubbed the first time, not because it had to be done in a rush informmally. Anyone know of two other flubbed ones?
I did the same thing, because the priest (father?) who married me had a really hilarious voice, somewhat similar to the priest (preacher? pastor? minister?) in Princess Bride, and I was sort of daydreaming and smothering my laughter & it took me a minute to come back to earth.
Back on topic, I’m glad to see that it wasn’t just/primarily Obama’s fault that the recitation was bungled; I watched the inauguration with two conservative friends who were being very gracious about their CRUSHING DEFEAT :p, and I was kind of inwardly cringing - my perfect moment was slightly less perfect!
She was a Federal judge. No problems. No do-over.
According to various articles in Wikipedia:
Rutherford Hayes - Because March 4, 1877 was a Sunday, Hayes took the oath of office in the Red Room of the White House on March 3. This ceremony was held in secret, because the previous year’s election had been so bitterly divisive that outgoing President Grant feared an insurrection by Tilden’s supporters and wanted to ensure that any Democratic attempt to hijack the public inauguration ceremony would fail, Hayes having been sworn in already in private. Hayes took the oath again publicly on March 5 on the East Portico of the United States Capitol.
Woodrow Wilson - (Is this correct? March 4, 1913 was a Tuesday. The Wikipedia article on Wilson does not say anything odd about his inauguration.)
Chester Arthur - Became President at the deat of President Garfield on Sept 19 1881. First oath was just past midnight on Sept 20 in New York City, with New York Supreme Court justice John R. Brady; the second time was upon his return to Washington two days later. (I don’t know what the problem was which required to do-over. If being outside of DC was the problem, then LBJ should also have done so.)
Calvin Coolidge - When President Harding died, Vice-President Coolidge was visiting his family home in Vermont. His father, a notary public, administered the oath of office. Coolidge returned to Washington the next day, and was re-sworn by Justice A. A. Hoehling of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, as there was some confusion over whether a state notary public had the authority to administer the presidential oath.
(I’m pretty sure that yesterday I read about a VP who was in Cuba when the president died, and so he took the oath in Cuba, and then again on US soil. Maybe I’m misremembering the story about Coolidge.)
According to this YouTube audio-only clip, that’s almost what FDR did for his first term in 1933: First, Chief Justice Charles E. Hughes recited the whole thing, and then FDR said the whole thing.