wow--\
Cut!Cut! CUT!
Swear the Oath again,please,Mr President!!
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Updated 8:31
p.m.
By Anne E. Kornblut and Michael D. Shear
President Obama took the oath of office -- again -- on Wednesday,
out of what a White House lawyer described as "an abundance of
caution."
"We believe that the oath of
office was administered effectively and that the president was
sworn in appropriately yesterday. But the oath appears in the
Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because
there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts
administered the oath a second time," said White House Counsel Greg
Craig in a statement issued early Wednesday night.
Obama and Chief Supreme Court
Justice John Roberts had both seemingly
stumbled over the 35-word oath during Obama's swearing-in as
president on Tuesday, leading some to question whether he had
properly committed the Constitutionally-mandated speech act that
made him president of the United States.
A president is required by the
Constitution to say: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully
execute the office of President of the United States, and will to
the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the
Constitution of the United States."
At the inaugural, Roberts had
mixed up the words, saying instead: "...that I will execute the
office to President of the United States
faithfully..."
And so, at 7:35 p.m. today,
according to the White House pool report, Roberts re-administered the oath in
the Map Room of the White House.
"We decided it was so much fun
-- " the first time, Obama joked while sitting on a
couch.
Obama stood and walked over to
make small talk with a reporter as Roberts donned his black
robe.
"Are you ready to take the
oath?" Roberts asked.
"I am, and we're going to do
it very slowly," Obama replied.
The private swearing-in
ceremony took 25 seconds.
After a flawless recitation,
Roberts smiled and said, "Congratulations,
again."
"Thank you, sir," Obama
replied, to a smattering of applause.
"All right," Obama said. "The
bad news for the pool is there's 12 more balls."
Posted at 7:56 PM ET on Jan 21, 2009
| Category:
Barack Obama
