The Presidential Oath - messed up? Is President Obama the President or not?

[IDrinkaRum]

Video and commentary concerning the swearing in of President Barrack Hussein Obama

Who flubbed the swearing in? Was it done on purpose? Should President Obama have to take the oath again (which has been done in years past with at least 2 other presidents)? Enquiring minds want to know!

[daleduke17]

He became President at 12:00 Noon irregardless of him taking the oath of office per the Constitution (you know, that "useless" piece of paper that keeps this country running).

[Rapscallion]

I remember someone protesting one of the inaugurations in my memory - could have been either Bush or Clinton - about them using the words 'so help me god' or something along those lines. They reckoned it was unconstitutional, being against the separation of church and state.

I'd have to know more about the US process and actually see the alleged flubbing before passing comment about this occasion, though. Am at work and we've got no video site access etc.

Rapscallion

[AdminAssistant]

President Obama and the Chief Justice both mutually stumbled on the words - but he said all the important parts.

[LadyBarbossa]

Faithfully execute, execute faithfully, they both mean the same thing, don't they? And I heard on the radio shortly after that oath or no oath, the president-elect becomes president by a sort of default on Inauguration day anyways. He was President before he even showed up for the ceremony.

[IDrinkaRum]

Actually daleduke17, President Obama wasn't sworn into the Presidency until 12:06 PM. Vice-President Joseph Biden did get sworn in on time at 12 NOON. That means for 6 minutes, Vice-President Biden was holding the Commander-in-Chief's place until President Obamam could become the President officially.

Presidents Calvin Coolidge & Chester Arthur both re-took the oath under similiar situations as posted in this blog which also calls into question President Obama's citizenship requirement, but that is neither here nor there, as I believe it's a mute point now that he has been sworn in as President.

[daleduke17]

IDAR -

Actually, the 20th Amendment is correct on the issue as well:

Section 1.
The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

So, realistically Biden was never in charge. Obama was the Commander-In-Chief as of 12:00 Noon (EST).

[AFPheonix]

They redid it anyways in Justice Robert's chambers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28780417/

[IDrinkaRum]

Look under the section "Succession & 25th Amendment" concerning acting President and in fact President. On that technicality, following the lead of John Tyler who became the 10th President immediately after the death of President William Harrison.

It wasn't until the ratification of the 25th Amendment that this was officially addressed.

I think it's a good thing that President Obama did re-take the oath of office. I don't believe it embarrassed either himself or Chief Justice Roberts. This just gives the Obama nay-sayers less of a leg to stand on when they say he's "not the legitimate President" or something along those lines.

[Boozy]

The do-over is a bit sad, in my opinion, and so is the media coverage of such a minor incident.

It's basically an admission that some litigious Republican sore-losers are going to make a stink about every small, meaningless error for the next four years. They're saying, "We don't want to spend the first year of the Obama Presidency sitting in court listening to testimony about the placement of the word faithfully, so we are forced to have this pointless do-over."

It's a Democratic president, after all, so it seems that the next four years will involve him getting crushed by an onslaught of silly minutiae and baseless accusations. So it begins.

[DesignFox]

Yea, I just read the article about the do-over this morning.

My thought process was, "really?"

I like that Obama seems to have a sense of humor surrounding the whole thing.

[Greenday]

It's basically an admission that some litigious Republican sore-losers are going to make a stink about every small, meaningless error for the next four years.

Doesn't that happen regardless of who's president?

[AdminAssistant]

Doesn't that happen regardless of who's president?

Yup - but the Republicans are being really big babies this time 'round. I watched a few minutes of Faux, um, I mean, Fox News on Inauguration Day and the commentators were whining about every thing remotely possible - "This celebration is costing too much!" "The President isn't being concerned about his safety!" "Taxpayer dollars at waste!" "Extravagance at the balls!" I mean, they couldn't even give the poor guy one blessed day to celebrate.

And the whole debacle over the Hillary Clinton confirmation is nothing more than leftover hatred of former President Clinton. I guess leaving the country in sound financial shape means nothing if you've banged an intern.

[Boozy]

Doesn't that happen regardless of who's president?

Point.

Although I'd say the Democrats had some bigger fish to fry over the last eight years. War declared over bogus evidence, government-endorsed torture at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, embarassingly inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, skyrocketing deficits, abuse of executive power...the list goes on.

For some reason, the Republicans have picked stupid battles. I think Clinton was a decent president, but he made some major mistakes. Unfortunately, the GOP strategy was to focus on blow jobs instead of policy.

[IDrinkaRum]

I don't know if I said this before, but I'm completely comfortable with him re-doing it. Yes, no one wanted to hear about how President Obama isn't the President because the oath wasn't correct. However, there have been 2 other Presidents who re-took the oath, so it's not like he's the first one to do it. I see it as no big deal really. It shows that President Obama is concientious enough to want to make sure all the t's are crossed and all the i's are dotted.