Obama takes Presidential oath...again
 

WASHINGTON – After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House — a rare do-over. The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday's much-noticed stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.

Don't worry, the White House says: Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day.

Nevertheless, Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called "an abundance of caution."

This time, the scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters, not the Capitol platform before the whole watching world.
"We decided that because it was so much fun ...," Obama joked to reporters who followed press secretary Robert Gibbs into the room. No TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in. A few of Obama's closest aides were there, along with a White House photographer.

Roberts put on his black robe.

"Are you ready to take the oath?" he said.

"Yes, I am," Obama said. "And we're going to do it very slowly."

Roberts then led Obama through the oath without any missteps.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/...a_oath_do_over


That will keep some of the looney toons on the far extreme right from saying "He's not the President".

First I've heard of it and I listen to a lot of talk radio

I suggest that you don't let that be your only outlet.

ETA: And in case you missed it, Hillary was confirmed today.

I heard plenty about that.

Good.

Chris Wallace on FOX News said after the oath was botched that b/c it had been Obama was not president. I'm not sure what other news outlets shared his POV but better safe than sorry.

CNN definitely did not share that POV because they announced at exactly 12pm that Barack Obama was officially president even though he hadn't been sworn in yet (they hadn't even made the first attempt at that time).

I was watching MSNBC and other than laughing at the botched oath they didn't really talk about it. I read on Daily Kos about Chris Wallace.

I was watching MSNBC's coverage the morning of and right at 12 Noon ET, and the announcer (can't remember if it was Olbermann or Brokaw) said that Barack Obama officially takes office - per the 20th Amendment. President Obama didn't take the Oath until 4 minutes later.

They were probably extra excited because they're FOXNews. lol.

I heard the same thing and I was flipping channels between MSNBC & CNN...

I saw a clip of what Chris Wallace said on the Countdown Olbermann show where he became one of the Worsts Persons...

The sly Fox, cyclops
We locked in an idiot box
The video slots broadcast
The Waco Dividian plots
They own YouTube, MySpace
When this ignorant shit going to stop?
They monopolizing news
Your views
And the channel you choose
Propaganda, visual cancer
The eye in the sky, number 5 on the dial
Secret agenda, frequency antenna
Dr. Mindbender
Remote control soul
Controller
Your brain holder
Slave culture, game's over
What's a fox characteristic?
Slick shit, sensin', misinformation
Pimp the station, over-stimulation
Reception, deception
Comcast digital Satan
The Fox has a bushy tail
And Bush tells lies and foxtrots
So, I don't know what's real (what's real)


Sly Fox - Nas

...let's see who picks this up...

I wonder what percentage of my news info comes from GC. Seriously! I was explaining this story to my roommate today, and most of what I knew about it came directly from GC. Love it!

Dear Lord, it's 3 AM!

The main reason they probably even bothered to do it again is because you know some crazy idiot would file an emergency injunction saying that G.W. is still pres...

At least it will sound better now for news clips and commemorative DVDs.

I heard this too actually. But my American Politics teacher said that Fox News (as usual) was off-base because in the 20th (I hope it's the 20th...) amendment it states something about the new president is officially in office on January 20th at 12:00pm. So regardless of oaths, stumbles, etc. Obama still wins. Yeah.

But Biden had already been sworn in! I think he started the rumor-mongering... :p

I wouldn't put it past him!

Me, neither. He was involved in a pre-internet scandal, but somehow got out of it. My own congressman didn't survive it.

But apparently you don't talk to enough lawyers. (And if that's the case, good for you. :D) This was a prime topic of conversation yesterday, going back and forth between "what was the CJ thinking, trying to do the oath from memory?" to "the CJ should really be embarrassed" to "what's the legal effect of flubbing the oath?"

As to the last question, others are right: Per Amendment XX, GWB's term ended at noon on Tuesday and, at the same moment, Obama became president. The question would have to do with his legal ability to exercise his authority as president until taking the oath, with many constitutional scholars coming down on the side of "he's president, but until he takes the oath, he can't do anything presidential." (Article II, § 1(8) says, "Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath . . . .") The question then became whether the flubbed oath counted. I saw disagreement on that, but most were taking the "better safe than sorry" approach.

BTW, this isn't the first time this has happened. Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur both re-took the oath. Both of those times, the sitting president had died (or been killed) while in office, and there was a question as to whether the first oath had been administered by someone qualified to do so.

I love being right. :)

Exactly; I'm a big fan of the CJ (he's one of my favorite Supreme Court justices ever, as dorky as that sounds), and even I was a little puzzled as to why he went about it the way he did.

It sounds ridiculously dorky but I don't think any of us would expect anything less. :p

I'm very impressed with him as well, so I was more than a little puzzled. I actually commented before he started the oath that it didn't seem like a good idea to try and do it from memory.

Well, if Obama had just gotten his part correct the first time, Roberts wouldn't have had to remember it . . . just another example of liberals undermining the judiciary.

Let's hear Olberman explain THAT.

:confused:

Saw him doing the oath without any papers, I started thinking, somebody is going to messed up.

Also saw tht CJ had a nervous look, that kinda sealed the deal on him flubbing. Bad idea to do it out of memory.

I was embarassed when it happened but I didn't know who messed it up.

The Obamas' faces were the only thing they camera was showing and their expressions were priceless.

Haha...fair enough. My dorkiness is quite apparent.

Sarcasm, meet deepimpact2. Deepimpact2, meet saracasm.

Just goes to show that when you try to get two Harvard Law grads to do something, the results can be CRAZY!!!

I am glad they re-did it! They needed to make sure it was right...