(Photo right-clicked from www.whitehouse.gov used here for educational and non-commercial purposes)
Inquirer quoting the wires today (AP, Agence France Presse, etc.) said U.S. President Barack Obama made a mistake in reciting his oath, or that the “Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Obama, helping him through a slight stumble…”
Wrong. (Inquirer got it wrong again.)
According to the CNN legal experts last night, it was the U.S. Chief Justice who made a mistake in reading the oath, and then, U.S. President Barack Obama, realizing right away that the Chief Justice made a mistake, “chuckled” according to CNN, then they both proceeded. Here’s the oath as written in their Constitution:
Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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.”
I watched the footage in the internet again and here’s my transcript :
US Pres: (an apple box was being brought onstage beside the First Couple, the First Couple looks at it, then he laughs softly and looks at his daughter): That was for you! (the daughters stand on the apple box)
CJ: Are you ready to take the oath, Senator?
US Pres: I am.
CJ: I, Barack Hussein Obama….
US Pres. (starts, but CJ continues): I, Barack….
CJ (resumes):… do solemnly swear…
US Pres: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…
CJ: …that I will…. execute the Office of President to the United States faithfully…
US Pres: … that I will execute… (pauses; smiles; tries to nod his head to the CJ, then smiles, pauses. )….
CJ: …faithfully….the Pres…the Office of the President to the United States…
US Pres: (smiles broadly; tries to nod his head to the CJ; smiles again) ….the Office of the President of the United States faithfully…
CJ: …and will to the best of my ability….
US Pres: …and will to the best of my ability…
(both proceed with the oath)
The Inquirer got it wrong when it said (quoting the wires) : “Chief Justice John Roberts swore in Obama, helping him through a slight stumble in the first of what could be many important interactions between two men who rose to their positions of power quickly and who have some background similarities, but whose politics differ.”
But what I don’t get is, the Inquirer quoted the wires like Agence France Presse; I checked the Agence France Presse and the Agence France Presse got it right! Why would the Inquirer quote the wires like Agence France Presse and get it wrong when wires like the Agence France Presse got it right?! What’s that?. The Inquirer just copied from another news agency and could not copy correctly.
Here’s the Agence France Presse news story:
Chief justice leads Obama to stumble presidential oath
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Barack Obama took the 35-word oath of office Tuesday to become the United States’ 44th president — even if he may have been led to utter the historic words in the wrong order.
Obama was sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, resting his left hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and raising his right hand to deliver the words that formally made him the successor to former president George W. Bush.
But things didn’t go exactly as planned for the swearing-in of the country’s first African-American commander-in-chief.
Under the gaze of more than two million crowded onto Washington’s National Mall and millions more around the world, Obama said: “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president of the United States faithfully, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States.
“So help me God.”
As specified in the US Constitution, the word “faithfully” precedes the phrase “execute the office,” but the chief justice, in his first presidential inauguration, read that part of the oath incorrectly.
Obama paused, apparently realizing something was wrong, and after an awkward moment Roberts repeated himself, but the chief justice stumbled again. Obama eventually recited the line as Roberts originally said it.
Huge crowds watching the historic proceedings one mile (kilometer) down the National Mall on a jumbo TV screen groaned loudly after Roberts’ gaffe.
“Oh no, no no no!” one woman screamed above the murmuring crowd.
The stumble marks the first of what is expected to be several interactions between the two men whose politics differ broadly.
Roberts, 53, was nominated to the high court by Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush in 2005, as the youngest chief justice in more than 200 years.
Roberts served in Republican administrations before becoming an appeals court judge and eventually chief justice.
Obama was among 22 Democrats in the US Senate to vote against Roberts in his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.
In Obama’s first luncheon as president, the affable Roberts appeared to apologize, prompting laughter and a handshake from Obama.
The new president could fill vacancies in the Supreme Court — some ageing liberal justices are known to want to retire — as a means of countering Roberts’s influence.
Jeffrey Rosen, a US constitutional law expert and professor at George Washington University in Washington, said stumbling over the oath has “no impact. News flash: He’s president.”
Rosen pointed to the 20th amendment of the US Constitution, which provides that the president and vice president’s term begins at noon on January 20th.
“Lots of people have flubbed the oath, perhaps most memorably Chief Justice (William Howard) Taft, who sort of riffed and then made up his own” upon swearing in then-president Herbert Hoover, said Rosen.
Where the oath calls for the president to pledge to “preserve, protect, and defend” the constitution, Taft said “preserve, maintain and defend” — injecting an entirely new word, while Roberts merely got the order wrong.jit-lc
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