Unpresidented

Posted by Nick Laitner at Fri, 23/01/2009 - 9:54am in

"I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…” Moving words, and certainly exciting ones for democrats and progressives everywhere. But – as the world knows – the rest of the oath itself proved problematic.

The Great Flub, as it is being dubbed, stemmed from the inability of Chief Justice John Roberts to lead the new President through his 35 word oath in the way prescribed by the Constitution, and by Obama’s impatience to get the words out as soon as possible. Unsurprisingly, there has been all manner of nonsense written about this verbal mishap. Reactions have ranged from the sarcastic, to the earnestly over-rational, to the crazily outraged. The fear of constant chatter about the Oath’s validity distracting from Obama’s first few days in office led to the new President and Roberts having a second try, ascribed to an “abundance of caution.” At the extreme end of the spectrum are the conspiracy theorists who believe that the first oath – and indeed the second – deviated sufficiently from the exact construction of words set out in the Constitution to render Obama’s young presidency invalid. It is safe to assume that the majority does not agree. Some earnest socio-linguists have referred to Justice Roberts’ “inner copy editor” amending the order of words in his head, to render them more grammatically (though less Constitutionally) correct. Others, malevolently, point to a subconscious desire to deliberately ruin the inauguration of President Obama, who as a Senator voted against his confirmation as Chief Justice. Some on the right are openly wondering what the reaction from the left would have been if George W Bush had tripped over these words like he has fluffed so many others in the past few years. More light hearted reactions include the following joke, currently doing the rounds in Washington’s smugger legal circles:

How many former editors of the Harvard Law Review does it take to administer the Presidential oath properly? Clearly, more than two.

My favourite (and most sympathetic) reaction is from the Economist’s anonymous Washington blogger, who notes simply:

I think it was rather sweet that both of them could be so distracted.

Agreed. President Obama has a number of slightly more important things to worry about over the next few days, particularly if he wants to earn the right to take the oath for a third time.

Tagged with: Barack Obama