The Chief Justice in fact screwed up the oath. The Constitution requires:Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake."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."Roberts left out the word "faithfully." (He also said "President to the United States.") Obama saw the mistake and stopped himself to give Roberts a chance to fix it. Roberts redid the line, remembering to throw in "faithfully," but putting it in the wrong place — after "President of the United States" — and, this time, Obama went along with the wording. Close enough, I guess he figured. I wonder what Barack Obama was thinking. Maybe: Some textualist you turned out to be!
ADDED: I've relistened. Roberts puts "faithfully" after "President of the United States" the first time as well as the second. He did not leave it out.
AND: The conspiracy theory will rage on forever, I think.
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114 comments:
Another Rovian Plot ;)
I wondered what the hell was happening. I thought Obama was so nervous he screwed up, but then when I reviewed the specific language of the oath it was apparent Roberts did indeed blow it.
It has to have happened before but it was rather strange.
Yeah--way to go CJ. But he will do better the next time. And the next, and the next, and the next.
Thanks. I did hear it as being the new President's error.
It may not take an entire village of Constitutional Law professors but it's handy having at least one good one on board!
like no one has ever botched up wedding vows, either.
It may not take an entire village of Constitutional Law professors but it's handy having at least one good one on board!
Fair and balanced and unafraid ;)
commenter said..."../like no one has ever botched up wedding vows, either."
Well, yeah, but is just a tad more important...doncha thik?
OK, Chief Justice Roberts gets most of the blame for this, but President - President - Obama isn't totally off the hook - he jumped the gun on the first sentence, "I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear ...," and it was kind of downhill after that.
As I mentioned in the Live-Blogging thread, the Oath went south the moment Barack Obama interrupted the Chief. Neither man recovered.
hey Michael: I'm curious -- can we expect a change in your commenting persona, now that Bush is gone and your guy is in? Specifically, will you give up the petulant asshole gadfly schtick?
if it is more important than the butterflies in the stomach have to be quite a bit more active.
A priest once said in front of a bunch of 8 yearolds making their communion:
You are going to make mistakes. You will be nervous. If you aren't, than it is important enough to you.
That's what butterflies in our stomach are for. To tell us that this is important.
Hey, I botched the wedding vows even though I got all the words perfect. Hope that isn't the kind of botchery we get from President Obama.
Okay, now Wolf Blitzer's complimenting Obama's penmanship in his signature.
Too much obsession with the minituae. Someone wake me when the news organizations turn to substance.
Lady Di botched her vows, I think. It is a bit ditzy.
OhferChrist'ssake, Juan Cole is crying on Fox.
Well, yeah, but is just a tad more important...doncha thik?
Maybe to your wife it is.
The CJ's first mistake was not pausing after "solemnly swear," as IIRC is customary. That's certainly what Obama expected, as he started speaking while the CJ kept going with the next phrase.
Maybe the mistiming fed into the CJ's subsequent goof.
Is it possible that the chief did not know Obamas middle name?
Actually what didn't help were the sirens going off in the background during it....
I'm sure that distracted both of them.
Okay, now Wolf Blitzer's complimenting Obama's penmanship in his signature.
Well sure. Any minute now Beth will be assuring us the media isn't fawning over him.
Blogger Tibore said...
Okay, now Wolf Blitzer's complimenting Obama's penmanship in his signature.
Too much obsession with the minituae. Someone wake me when the news organizations turn to substance.
This is why I was watching CBN.
The chief heard 'Hussein' and wheels came off.
Roberts was improving it. Probably he doesn't split infinitives either.
``Faithfully'' doesn't mean anything and so should not be focused. After all Clinton took the oath twice.
May I just say, That short red coat and black boots Jill Biden wore looked ridiculous. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I'm appled.
I mean, appalled.
Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake.
God forbid.
Sorry, Ann, but Obama gets the blame for being "off sides": He began before the ball was fully hiked with "I, Barack Obama". It was Barack who threw the rhythm of the game off.Downhill after that.
So, Ann, you scored this one wrong. 5 yard penalty for Obama.
Do let this Bush supporter say this though to President Obama:
Congratulations and Best Wishes, Mr President!
We must pick ourselves up
Pick up the pieces.
Harvard Law guys don't read really well. Too busy counting money or publishing articles.
Countdown to crazees saying this means he's not legally the president, 5, 4, 3, 2 .....
Chief Justice John Roberts botched the oath of office.
So it doesn't count! Obama's not president! Come on Cheney, God has just handed you your chance!
Meade, I have no idea what you're trying to say. Bush was a disaster, 80% of the American populace knows it, and now he's gone.
Hopefully (no pun intended) President Obama will put things back in order, but I don't think it will be something that happens overnight.
As for your inane "petulant asshole gadfly schtick" comment, you can suck my cock.
ichael farris said..."Countdown to crazees saying this means he's not legally the president, 5, 4, 3, 2 ....."
Didn't take long, did it?
Not on this site.
Hoosier Daddy said..."Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake."
You're such a little girl.
Whaaaaaa, Whaaaaa, Whaaaaa...
They BOTH screwed up...live with it.
Michael said...
commenter said..."../like no one has ever botched up wedding vows, either."
Well, yeah, but is just a tad more important...doncha thik?
No Michael, I don't think his oath is more important than the one I gave my wife. Which is why I don't want it diluted any more by allowing same sex marriages, brother sister marriages, multiple wives marriages, animal/people marriages. Easy, thoughtless divorce has been bad enough.
My wedding vows were even more important than the oath taken by Obama: He is President at noon with or without the oath. But while the leader of the nation, he is still one citizen. The backbone and existence of this country is families. Married families. A nation of singles will not survive long term.
My inauguration?
Victoria is back..
Good to see you Vic.
OK, so Roberts isn't a strict constructionist.
It's a moment when anyone up there must have had their head swimming with 100s of thoughts.
excuse me,
i totally botched that butterfly reply with than and then and omitting a word and comma.
I wonder if you timed the spaces in speech, when would we insert the … in the transcript or just a simple comma. See how punctuation doesn't serve all.
I am not watching this on tv and only waiting for the museum to open.
Which is why I don't want it diluted any more by allowing same sex marriages, brother sister marriages, multiple wives marriages, animal/people marriages.
Oh, great. Take a dump in the punch bowl, whydonchya?
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Michael:
Hoosier Daddy said..."Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake."
You're such a little girl.
Actually, that was the Professor who said that.
No, Michael. "80% fo the American People" reported in polls that they "did not approve" of his performance.
That includes people who thought he was "not Republican enough" as well as the opposite.
(When Obama's poll numbers drop as soon as he starts making real decisions, will the polls matter as much?
Or will they suddenly become, as they've always been, an almost-useless reflection of what people saw on TV last night combined with a ludicrous model of Presidental influence that holds the President responsible for every fluctuation of the world economy?)
Back on the original post, however, I cannot wait for four years of idiots telling me "Obama isn't really President because the oath wasn't recited Perfectly".
Okay, don't anyone take this as an attack on yourself, or your post. Or Professor Althouse's post. I'm not ripping that or what anyone else has said here, I'm merely stating what's on my mind:
I could care less if the Oath of Office was f***'d up. I could really care less. The oath is not what's important; it's the conduct of the officeholder throughout his time in office. If they accidentally leave out entire lines, so what? It doesn't matter.
Too many times, we all take the media's cue and obsess over minute items. What truly matters is who won the election and how that winner performs. All the trappings of office are important for tradition and continuity, and the oath itself is a statement of fidelity and duty, so don't think I'm denigrating the oath. I'm not. It's very important. It deserves great respect. But rather, I'm pointing out that the oath can be completely borked all to hell and it won't change the fact that Obama's the President, that he's the first African-American elected to this office, and that he's got a bunch of issues to deal with for the next 4 years.
All right. The oath was screwed up. Amusing footnote in history noted. Someone let me know when the news media and the rest of the nation is ready to return to topics of substance. That's what matters, regardless of who's President.
Hey Lem!
P.S.: "Change has come to America" says the official White House website.
Not pleased with this. Once a man becomes President, he is more statesman than politician. Failure to do so strikes precisely the wrong note.
Bush looked choked up when saying goodbye to the military men and women who served alongside him during his Presidency.
That's the kind of emotion you cannot community work yourself into.
Obama muffed the first bit but saved it by starting again, and then Roberts messed it up and Obama waited. It's only three lines you know?
Tibore
Relax. Roberts screwed it up. Not Obama. Obama paused to make Roberts repeat it. All is good. Move on.
That's the kind of emotion you cannot community work yourself into.
Cheap shot.
"ADDED: I've relistened..."
Hardest Working Law Prof in Show Business.
Git down, girl!
Bush looked choked up when saying goodbye to the military men and women who served alongside him during his Presidency.
Maybe he was feeling guilty for having put them in harm's way over a bunch of lies.
So it doesn't count! Obama's not president! Come on Cheney, God has just handed you your chance!
Biden had already been sworn in, so Cheney is out of the picture.
Well, you're assuming he botched it. But it wasn't Roberts' big day that this made a mess of. If you could listen in to Roberts' thoughts as he sat back down, I bet it went like this: "That'll teach you to vote against me, you snotty little upstart."
Here's the transcript of the flub.
We're all human.
VB came back.
Unfortunately, most Americans will assume it's Barrack's fault since they won't do the research.
Thank you for clarifying.
Althouse said: Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake."
Hoosier Daddy said: "God forbid."
Since the One can't be wrong, from now on all Presidents will have to be sworn in using the exact words that Obama used. Starting circa 2040, after he's finished his 8th term.
Oh for Heaven's sake. They were nervous, probably freezing their buns off. It's no big deal. This intense focusing on irrelevant minutia instead of the big picture is what is wrong with the media and partisan fanatics an all sides.
I want to focus on what is really important. Like...what is Michelle going to wear to the inaugural ball? If nothing else, I really like her clothing style.
casey said...
"Unfortunately, most Americans will assume it's Barrack's fault since they won't do the research."
You know what? If it sticks in the craw of people like you, so much the better. "Barack's" - goddamn bunch of cultists.
Jill Biden is interesting. She looks both sweet and sexy-hot. Joe is a lucky guy--supposedly she is nice and competent as well.
"Matt said...
Tibore
Relax. Roberts screwed it up. Not Obama. Obama paused to make Roberts repeat it. All is good. Move on."
I know it was the Chief Justice who screwed it up. Doesn't change anything; my point still stands. It's nothing more than an amusing anecdote for historians ("Hey, did'ja know the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court dorked up the Oath of Office for the first African American President?"). Sort of a fun, Trivial Pursuit factoid to store away, nothing more. Which is my whole point.
Who cares??? Obama is president, and Roberts is Chief Justice. It's not Robert's care's. He's justice for life!! leave him alone...btw, they both screwed up
Mr. Buddwing listen to it again,
Obama screwed up first, and the person who cases the first screw up deserves most of the blame (as that can be said to have caused Roberts' screw up).
Host With No Braqins: "No Michael, I don't think his oath is more important than the one I gave my wife. Which is why I don't want it diluted any more by allowing same sex marriages, brother sister marriages, multiple wives marriages, animal/people marriages. Easy, thoughtless divorce has been bad enough."
Yeah, Obama is in favor of "allowing same sex marriages, brother sister marriages, multiple wives marriages, animal/people marriages..."
What in the world are you talking about??
You can't possibly be this dumb...can you?
But, I can't say I'm surprised one of the chimp's peeps turned into an airhead under pressure.
I'm repeating part of another comment since it belongs here even more:
This fabulous comment
from the influential and clever lefty blog Washington Monthly gets right to the core meaning of what happened:
I think Justice Roberts fucking up the oath is a perfect symbol of the transfer of power. Roberts deciding to "wing-it W-style" didn't use notes and ended up fucking up a very historic event. Obama, in contrast, was left trying to fix the half cocked mess. What a wonderful symbol for what Bush is handing off and the different approaches of the two administrations.
Posted by: palinoscopy on January 20, 2009 at 1:29 PM
I note right-leaning sites are already angling to blame Obama instead (no surprise), Breitbart (a Drudge affiliate/ish) has under "upcoming headlines":
Obama Screws Up Oath
Fox News asking if Obama is really President given that Roberts goofed up the oath of office.
Didn't take the right long to try to start pushing Obama from office. Predictable.
Party before country, as always, among con's!
Michael mis-readHoosier Daddy said..."Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake."
You're such a little girl.
Actually Michael, Professor Althouse said that, not me.
Maybe if you'd learn to READ...
It was not a high point in the day.
Party before country, as always, among con's!
As always, the irony is amazing to behold.
How can anyone say Obama didn't screw up the oath? I just watched Slick Willy doing his oath, and then watched Obama doing his for a second time. Obama screws up the first bit; Roberts screws up the second bit. Two knuckleheads.
But I still like Obama. :)
Hoosier Daddy said..."Actually Michael, Professor Althouse said that, not me."
*Quotation marks indicating such?
LoafingOaf: It was Roberts who got the language wrong. Obama spoke when he thought Roberts and paused to allow him to respond and that kind of flustered Roberts (who was reciting from memory).
Whatever.... stuff happens.
Alpha says: "Fox News asking if Obama is really President given that Roberts goofed up the oath of office. "
One more bit of proof of the total humorlessness of the left.
He was kidding, Alpha. Kidding.
Fool.
*Quotation marks indicating such?
Michael,look at Professor's post and get back to me.
Assuming you can read words larger than two syllables.
Roberts and Obama were looking at each other thinking: "One of us just screwed up. Which one?"
It looked to me like Obama was trying to help Roberts out, but it's hard to know for sure.
It all began to go downhill when Obama started to repeat before Roberts was done with reading the first part of the oath. But I liked that: Obama rarin' to go. That's how his speech sounded--like a guy who can't wait to take on the challenges.
David - fuck you and Obama and all you Democrats. I hope Obama fails more horribly then any President in history!
Roberts got it wrong from the beginning, calling Obama “Senator”, when he was already president (since noon, according to the constitution). Roberts should’ve at least said “president elect” if he was unfamiliar with the constitution ;-)
Don't they practice these things beforehand?
deaninwaukesha
Chip Ahoy said: OhferChrist'ssake, Juan Cole is crying on Fox.
I think you mean Juan Williams. Juan Cole would be crying if McCain had won.
Neil quoted Palinoscopy:
I think Justice Roberts fucking up the oath is a perfect symbol of the transfer of power. Roberts deciding to "wing-it W-style" didn't use notes and ended up fucking up a very historic event. Obama, in contrast, was left trying to fix the half cocked mess. What a wonderful symbol for what Bush is handing off and the different approaches of the two administrations.
You can look at it that way. Or you can look at it in Clintonian-Bush terms. In the rush to grab power, an untested but popular man jumped the gun, leaving an unpopular man to clean up his mess, which he did clumsily.
Either way, not their finest hour.
Charming, Alex. You might want to keep in mind that he's the only President we've got.
In the rush to grab power, an untested but popular man jumped the gun, leaving an unpopular man to clean up his mess, which he did clumsily.
The nation survived a couple of Irish presidents and a Papist to boot so fear not dear friends.
Alex: "David - fuck you and Obama and all you Democrats. I hope Obama fails more horribly then any President in history!"
Well said, Alex. Let's see. Buchanan's failures made the Civil War pretty much inevitable. Would it please you if Obama could top that? I'm sure the nation would recover from whatever is worse than the Civil War in a century or two.
Good to see from you the evidence of you that total churlishness is not confined to the Left.
FYI, I'm not a Democrat.
@Victoria: in the other thread, I posted this about the botched Princess Diana vows:
And remember how the Duchess of York took great delight in her vows with Prince Andrew by getting it right.
Neither marriage, alas, was to last.
I think you mean Juan Williams. Juan Cole would be crying if McCain had won.
What about Juan Valdez?
Like Buddwing and Victoria said: Obama first threw Roberts off stride by repeating "I, Barack Hussein Obama" without waiting for Roberts to say "do solemnly swear." They stepped on their toes like bad dance partners from then on.
Speaking of wedding vows, one of my (long since ex) brothers-in-law, who had tied on quite a good one on wedding eve, and who was Mexican and hence not a native English speaker, botched his vows to my sister in such a way that we all agreed afterwards that he had married himself.
I thought the moment when Obama became president (and it literally was) was the wordless moment about 12:01 when Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman et.al. were playing and he was turning and looking at them and smiling. They could have thrown the rest of it out. That was it. Enough words!
Jill Biden is interesting. She looks both sweet and sexy-hot.
I didn't mind her outfit. She's proud of her legs! So sue her!
Don't they practice these things beforehand?
Same question occurred to me, given that they do rehearse weddings. (But do they rehearse the vows? Seems like they should only be said once.)
Hey, Ann, you have a typo here:
I've relistened. Roberts puts "faithfully" after "President of the United States" the first time as well as the second. He did not leave it out.
What he actually said:
"I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully."
"to" should be "of." Roberts also put "faithfully" in the wrong place.
We know what he meant.
botched his vows to my sister in such a way that we all agreed afterwards that he had married himself.
LOL! My second lulz courtesy of Amba today.
Although, honestly, a man endowing himself and not his new bride with all his worldly goods is not such a bad idea. My mother is on her 20th scissored credit card.
Cheers,
Victoria
Another lapsus linguae by Roberts was:
"That I will execute the Office of President to the United States, faithfully."
You gotta admire his quick thinking of getting his enormous flub correct grammatically, by using "to the" instead of "of the".
I also liked that Obama stopped for Roberts to correct himself without smirking (as Bush might've done).
Cheers,
Victoria
oh, shut up, amba.
my vows were in German. I did not have to repeat anything. I only had to say
"Ich will"
Now some native germanic linguist might explain to me the differences in modal verbs in the german language. I know ick will(i was in Berlin, hence ick )does not translate into the emphatic I DO.
It means something like i will it to be, I guess. Though, more often it means i really want to. Other than that i did not have to say anything. I cannot even tell you what my vows were. IN my civil service, I can't even remember speaking. I just signed my name on the dotted line where the public servant had pointed.
So the words meant really nothing to me. There was more thought and emotion that meant the world to me. I did not underswtand fully the language but i understood what was in my heart, what i was getting into. I kept those vows until I was asked to sign a paper that it was all over. Just as i kept my word to the Catholic church that i would raise my kids Catholic.
Well, yeah, but is just a tad more important...doncha thik?
Actually, I don't---Obama was officially President at noon, oath or no oath, according to the 20th Amendment.
Oops, HwtM beat me to it.
mcg said...
"Obama was officially President at noon, oath or no oath, according to the 20th Amendment."
I'm not sure that you're right. In one respect I'm sure you're wrong: the Twentieth Amendment says nothing about when a President's term begins, it says when it ends. I would think that leaves intact Article 2's requirement that "[b]efore he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the ... oath [of office]," and that if the incoming President does not take the oath of office before noon on the twentieth, and the incoming vice-President has, the incoming vice-President will "act as President until a President shall have qualified." I realize that this suggests the horrifying prospect that Joe Biden was, for a few minutes, the acting President, but that seems the most faithful reading.
Volkoh: ". . .the flubbed oath at today's inaugural teaches one important lesson: The answer to the question, "How many former editors of the Harvard Law Review does it take to administer the Presidential oath properly?" is "More than two."
Harvard: over rated
U of W: under
Even U of M kicks Harvard's ass
Robert's made the error. Obama's speech was collected, inspired and insightful. Nobody that cool would have made a mistake. He was brilliant and I'm not an American.
Simon: No, the Twentieth Amendment says, "The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January... and the terms of their successors shall then begin."
"Robert's made the error. Obama's speech was collected, inspired and insightful. Nobody that cool would have made a mistake."
Of course not! The One can never make a mistake evar!!!1
"He was brilliant and I'm not an American."
We'll be back to Non Sequitur Theatre right after these messages...
We'll be back to Non Sequitur Theatre right after these messages...
Brilliant.
Dude, you should be subbing for Dave Barry when he's on vaca.
Nobody that cool would have made a mistake.
That is, unless he's tired from visiting 57 states!
Adverbs can be placed accurately in many different places.
Besides, if you listen to what Obama says that he wants to do/is going to do, then he has no intention of keeping the oath (read Article II of the Constitution).
Roberts apologized for the muff and congratulated Obama, being the first one to call him "Mr. President."
So what. Cut Roberts some slack. Not like he's accustomed to be in the public spotlight or running for office or anything.
Its a shame that one of the greatest moments in American history did not go smoothly. Some clever editing is going on on news networks to make it look blooper free.
JpopGamer said...
"Its a shame that one of the greatest moments in American history did not go smoothly."
Oh, good God. Greatest moments in American history? Do you really believe that, or do you actually know some American history?
Some clever editing is going on on news networks to make it look blooper free.
My boyfriend, who is Canadian, told me that he saw the full clip on Headline News, but that when the CBC showed it, they had editted it to sound "smooth".
Very Orwellian, I am sure.
James - crap. You're right. My bad; that's what going by memory gets me. Still, that notwithstanding, I would argue that the oath of office is a prerequisite to the President exercising power, while conceding that's an arguable point.
Let's hear it for animal/people marriages!
I think the entire thing started because of the full name being used. There was so much about the Hussein name that now with the oath and having to say the full name, I think Obama jumped in on Roberts to try and get that out of the way. This threw Roberts off which is easy to do when you have to go back and add the part that should have been included before Obama spoke. This is a Hussein moment which Obama is sensitive to having out there after the all the hubbub during the race.
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