Yes, it was a stagger, but no one dropped a bible, spilled a drink or knocked over the podium so it could have been much worse, right?
Before I get into “what went wrong” let me say this; Obama is now President. Any blogs or writings that keep saying he was trying to purposefully leave out words or not say certain words while his hand was on the bible are just plain stupid. Come on guys, get some real issues to talk about (like if the Loch Ness Monster is really out there).
So, with that in order, what did happen and did they really do it again?
Well, in a nutshell, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. prompted Obama with the words (working without notes). Obama jumped in a bit early, which seemed to have bumped Roberts off his cadence. When they started over Roberts mixed up a few words (moving the word “faithfully”). It appeared that Obama waited for Roberts to say them again (in the right order). Never the less, they got back on track.
Secondly, put it under the “just in case” column; this evening at 7:35pm, Roberts went to the Whitehouse and did a second swearing in. Although spokesman Robert Gibbs from the White House said that officials believed the oath was administered properly, they did it again out of “an abundance of caution, because one word was out of sequence.
Not to worry, apparently the 35-word oath gets messed up quit a bit. The most famous is probably Chief Justice (William Howard) Taft, who forgot the words and made up his own when swearing in president Herbert Hoover.
Here is what should have been said…
“I (name) 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.” – The words “so help me God” are added if the president wants them — Obama did.
Here is what happened…
ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama…
OBAMA: I, Barack…
ROBERTS: … do solemnly swear…
OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…
ROBERTS: … that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully…
OBAMA: … that I will execute…
ROBERTS: … faithfully the office of president of the United States…
OBAMA: … the office of president of the United States faithfully…
ROBERTS: … and will to the best of my ability…
OBAMA: … and will to the best of my ability…
ROBERTS: … preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
OBAMA: … preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
ROBERTS: So help you God?
OBAMA: So help me God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.”
From what I hear, there were no problems the second time.
Fine, I suppose this is where you look for some witty insights to my mind. A "bio" of sorts. Here is the deal... I ride motorcycles, smoke cigars, golf, kayak, fly, race my car through the mountains, write (a lot), and travel extensively. I am almost old enough not to care what other people think about me...almost. ~Godfadr
It did spoil the mood a little bit by disturbing the tears of joy from streaming down my face. Okay, so I didn’t really have tears of joy streaming down my face but they were definitely watering up a bit. To be honest, the stumble of words made me feel a little better about my stumbling over my own feet while walking across the stage to retrieve my high school diploma years ago- Ha!