UPDATE: Good news. I just heard that Roberts immediately took the blame for messing the oath up. So the answer seems to be a Roberts Flub. It's a new day. Time for me to shed a layer of cynicism. :)Supreme Court Justice John Roberts flubbed giving the proper oath of office today providing the only awkward moments in a smooth inauguration.. It could be that since it was Robert's first time administering the Presidential oath he made a mistake. But that would be such an elementary mistake and it seems highly unlikely that such a noted scholar would let that happen. It could have been payback for Obama not voting for his confirmation a couple years back or maybe a public reminder that the Conservative movement still control the strongest levers of power in this country. Ugly stuff. Unless he fesses up to his mistake within the next 24 hours I will have to assume the worse. Change has come to America alright and some powerful people still don't like that. Here's a quick analysis that pretty much describes what happened:
From NBC's Pete Williams
The recitation of the presidential oath came in fits and starts.
The Constitution prescribes the text: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will to best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
But Chief Justice John Roberts, using no notes, flubbed his lines, and Obama knew it.
First, Obama jumped in before the "do solemnly swear" phrase, which seemed to throw the chief justice off his stride. Roberts rendered the next phrase as "that I will execute the office of President to the United States faithfully."
"That I will execute," Obama repeated, then paused like a school teacher prompting his student with a slight nod. Roberts took another shot at it: "The off ... faithfully the pres ... the office of President of the United States."
The oath then got more or less back on track after that. Close enough for government work.
2 comments:
Comment by Roberts after the fact don't change what happened. He is a dyed-in-the-wool conservative partisan. Although he is a Harvard lawyer, he was raised in the Republican tradition of Haldeman, Atwater, Baker, Cheney and Rove. Nixon's people called it "rat f*cking" and the papers called it "dirty tricks." Roberts deliberately shattered the solemnity of this great moment for the American people. The video record is forever marred. They are infantile, yes, but very effective in terms of media manipulation. Roberts revealed his own racism today. The American people should fight to take their Supreme Court back from people like Roberts who serve not justice, but partisan warfare. Sore losers, the lot of them!!
Already you liberals are trying to blame the right wing conspricy for all that does not go perfectly in the Obama reign.
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