SubscribeBefore he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:Essentially, as debated on metafilter on an earlier thread, one cannot execute as president without reciting the oath word-for-word. Obama voted against the supreme court nomination of Roberts, and this is probably he way of getting back at him. It couldn't have een that hard to read it correctly, he was reading it off a sheet of paper! This was probably to create illegitimacy in the president, but Oama, the constitutional scholar that he is, caught it and gave him a "WTF" look.
"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."
"…As I stand here tonight, what gives me the greatest hope of all is not the stone and marble that surrounds us today, but what fills the spaces in between. It is you - Americans of every race and region and station who came here because you believe in what this country can be and because you want to help us get there. It is the same thing that gave me hope from the day we began this campaign for the presidency nearly two years ago; a belief that if we could just recognize ourselves in one another and bring everyone together - Democrats, Republicans, and Independents; Latino, Asian, and Native American; black and white, gay and straight, disabled and not - then not only would we restore hope and opportunity in places that yearned for both, but maybe, just maybe, we might perfect our union in the process."
"On CNN, Wolf Blitzer said, "'John Roberts had one job to do today and he sort of screwed up.' Jeffrey Toobin replied, 'I almost fell out of my chair.'"
Praise song for the day.
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, "I need to see what's on the other side; I know there's something better down the road."
We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by "Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by first do no harm, or take no more than you need.
What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song for walking forward in that light.
Air Force OneBTW -- National Geographic will be showing a documentary On Board Air Force One this coming Sunday.
Army One
Coast Guard One
Marine One
Navy One
and...
Executive One - the call sign designated any civilian aircraft when the President is onboard.
Sen. Robert C. Byrd's office says the 91-year West Virginian decided to leave an inauguration luncheon after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was stricken, but not because of any medical problem of his own.
Spokesman Mark Ferrell said that Byrd was sitting at the Capitol luncheon with Sen. Kennedy when the Massachusetts senator took sick.
Ferrell said, "Sen. Byrd did not have a medical issue - he is just fine."
Ferrell added: "Sen. Byrd made the decision to leave the luncheon once Sen. Kennedy was being taken from the room by medical personnel. Sen. Byrd is currently in his own office in the Senate Hart Building and is doing fine, though remains very concerned about his close friend Ted Kennedy."
Yes. And sorry for jumping on the hypotheticals/contuinity of gov't OCD bandwagon, but what was with Roberts addressing Obama as "Senator"? He wasn't one at the time, right?No, he was not, but he was an ex-Senator, who are typically referred to as "Senator". Immediately after the oath, Roberts referred to Obama as "Mr. President".
Therefore it was technically correct to call him "Senator" although it was kind of a dis if you ask me. Mr. President-Elect would have been classier.I sincerely doubt that it was a "dis". If anything, I bet it was proper.
"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."Here is a shallow transcription of the oath, as stated this morning (delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts to Barack Hussein Obama at 12:00 pm, January 20th, 2009):
*Brackets "[ ]" represent overlapping speech. Parenthesis represent paralinguistic cues. Periods "." represent pauses. Hyphens "–" represent truncated speech.
- Roberts: I, Barack Hussein Obama [do solemnly swear]
- Obama: [I, Barack]
- Obama: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear.
- Roberts: That I will..execute the office of President of the United States faithfully.
- Obama: That I will execute... (nods to Roberts)
- Roberts: the off– faithfully the Pres– 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: I 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.
The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart…No, sorry: the success of the US economy has depended on fucking-over third world nations and its own lower-class citizens.
We will not apologize for our way of life…The American way of life is one of overconsumption, greed, and violence. I suggest there is a helluvalot of apologizing to be made.
Although the guard at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has indisputably changed, although the new boss is not the same as the old boss, I’m less certain about us. I’d like to believe that we’re a different people now; that we’re more educated, more skeptical, more tough-minded than we were when we gave the outgoing gang of criminals enough votes to steal the presidential election, twice, but it’s hard work; actual human beings keep getting in the way.
...
I was raised to be ashamed of my ignorance, and to try to do something about it if at all possible. I carry that burden to this day, and have successfully passed it on to my children. I don’t believe I have the right to an opinion about something I know nothing about—constitutional law, for example, or sailing—a notion that puts me sadly out of step with a growing majority of my countrymen, many of whom may be unable to tell you anything at all about Islam, say, or socialism, or climate change, except that they hate it, are against it, don’t believe in it. Worse still (or more amusing, depending on the day) are those who can tell you, and then offer up a stew of New Age blather, right-wing rant, and bloggers’ speculation that’s so divorced from actual, demonstrable fact, that’s so not true, as the kids would say, that the mind goes numb with wonder. “Way I see it is,” a man in the Tulsa Motel 6 swimming pool told me last summer, “if English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it’s good enough for us.”
...
In American politics, as in the cafeteria, the crowd sets the tone. It doesn’t know much, and if you want in, you’d better not either. Should you want out, of course, all you have to do is inadvertently let on—for example, by using the word “inadvertently”—that you’re a reasonably educated human being, and the deed is done.
...
For starters, consider how easily things might have gone the other way had the political and economic climate not combined into a perfect political storm for the Republican Party; had the Dow been a thousand points higher in September, or gas a dollar cheaper. Truth is, we got lucky; the bullet grazed our skull.
...
Praise me for a citizen or warm up the pillory, it comes down to the unpleasant fact that a significant number of our fellow citizens are now as greedy and gullible as a boxful of puppies; they’ll believe anything; they’ll attack the empty glove; they’ll follow that plastic bone right off the cliff. Nothing about this election has changed that fact. If they’re ever activated—if the wrong individual gets to them, in other words, before the educational system does—we may live to experience a tyranny of the majority Tocqueville never imagined.
In 1916, the State Department determined that "there is no interval between the term of one President and the beginning of his successor, although there may be a slight interval when the executive power is suspended." Therefore, a delay in taking the oath of office would not leave a hiatus in the office of the President, but the new president would not have the constitutional power to perform any executive function until the oath of office was taken.[2]I agree that this didn't become a big deal right now, thanks largely to Obama's good judgement and "abundance of caution," but I reject the idea that it shouldn't be a big deal. Evidently it was a big enough deal for an article in the Constitution, several Supreme Court decisions, and a 20th-century Constitutional Amendment to have something to say about it. I'm also glad that its appearance as a news topic has helped me learn a bit more about the structures of our government and the potential pitfalls they are intended to address.
Such finding was based on a 1821 ruling by Chief Justice John Marshall opining that it was "inevitable" the existence of a short "interval in which the executive power is suspended" because "the Constitution only provides that the President shall take the oath it prescribes 'before he enters on the execution of the office'." Marshall then referred to the interval between the midnight of the 3rd of March, when the presidential term started, and the noon of the 4th, when the oath of office was taken, as it was the practice at that time, saying that "there has been uniformly and voluntarily an interval of twelve hours in which the executive power could not be exercised." Marshall further notes that the law was silent on the exact time the oath should be taken, leaving it "at the discretion of the high officer", who could decide to take the oath on the first hour of his term in an emergency, or could defer the taking of the oath until the next day, if more convenient (for instance if inauguration day fell on a Sunday); neither timing would be deemed improper, though it is reasonable to take the oath "as soon as it could be conveniently taken" so to shorten that time interval.[2]
With the enactment of the 20th Amendment, the moment when one term ends and another begins was changed from the midnight of the 3rd and 4th of March to noon on January 20th, but the amendment only dealt with the beginning and end of the presidential term, not with the moment when the new President actually enters in the execution of his office. All Presidents inaugurated after the enactment of the 20th Amendment have continued to take the oath of office before they enter in the execution of the office, but the inauguration ceremonies now coincide with the beginning of a new term, avoiding the twelve hour hiatus, since presidents usually take the oath of office at noon. The issue of suspension of executive power, however, is still relevant when a Vice-President succeeds to the presidency, since there can be a larger hiatus between the death or resignation of one President and the swearing-in of the successor, and when there is a delay in the swearing-in of a new President on Inauguration Day. Since the enactment of the 20th Amendment, the hiatus between the beginning of the term of a new President and his taking the oath of office has not been completely eliminated, since some Presidents, such as Bill Clinton in his first swearing-in, have taken the oath of office a few minutes past noon, due to slight delays in the inauguration ceremonies.
"It was not precisely lip-synching, but pretty close.
The somber, elegiac tones before President Obama’s oath of office at the inauguration on Tuesday came from the instruments of Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and two colleagues. But what the millions on the Mall and watching on television heard was in fact a recording, made two days earlier by the quartet and matched tone for tone by the musicians playing along.
The players and the inauguration organizing committee said the arrangement was necessary because of the extreme cold and wind during Tuesday’s ceremony. The conditions raised the possibility of broken piano strings, cracked instruments and wacky intonation minutes before the president’s swearing in (which had problems of its own)."
« Older Covered: A new blog showcasing reinterpretations o... | A recipe for Inaugural Orange ... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by iviken at 9:23 AM on January 20 [1 favorite]