Obama Took Oath of Office....Again

[vin]

Obama Took Oath of Office Again Tonight
January 21, 2009 7:55 PM

Chief Justice John Roberts came to the White House tonight and administered the oath of office to President Obama at 7:35 p.m. ET in the Map Room.

"Because there was one word out of sequence" in yesterday's oath, explained White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the president took the oath again "out of an abundance of caution."

Only people in the room were President Obama, Roberts, Gibbs, WH communications staffer Katie Lillie, WH photographer Pete Souza, and four print reporters.

"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday," White House counsel Greg Craig said in a statement. "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."

President Obama was seated on a sofa when the pool reporters walked in to record the event.

"We decided it was so much fun," Obama joked.

Then Obama stood.

Chief Justice Roberts then put on his robe.

"Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked.

"I am, and we're going to do it very slowly," Obama said.

Total running time of new oath: 25 seconds.

Roberts said, "Congratulations, again."

- jpt

[And Such Were Some Of You]

I heard about this as well. I was watching some of the news channels last night and they were discussing this. One station (I forget which) was explaining how it has to be quoted exactly how it is written, word for word with no mess ups. Yet, watching the TODAY show just now (I caught the last 2 minutes or less of the segment) there was a gentleman on there stating that it wasn't necessary to do over.

I say, better safe than sorry.

[vin]

Yeah, that's what I say too. When it happened I wondered if it would come back to bite him later and if it should be done over. So I agree with what they said, "out of an abundance of caution".

[Jasmine]

It was Chief Justice Roberts who messed up. President Obama actually paused and waited for Chief Justice Roberts to say the passage again before he followed through.

[And Such Were Some Of You]

Jan 22, 2009 16:43:11 GMT -5 Jasmine said:

It was Chief Justice Roberts who messed up. President Obama actually paused and waited for Chief Justice Roberts to say the passage again before he followed through.

Yeah, that is what the News was saying also that it was Chief Justice Roberts who twisted the words and that Obama knew better which is why he paused to allow Chief Justice Roberts to get it correct.

[krazeeboi]

Really, it didn't even matter because according to the Constitution, Obama officially became president at 12pm on Jan. 20.