Monday, January 21, 2013

Obama Ties FDR

Today, when President Barack Obama took the oath of office, he actually tied President Franklin Roosevelt for number of oaths of office. This sounds wrong, but Obama has actually taken the oath four times even though he is only serving two terms.

First: In 2009, during Obama's first inauguration Chief Justice Roberts actually got the wording wrong. He interrupted the President forcing him to repeat some of the oath.

ROBERTS: ...that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully...
OBAMA: ...that I will execute... [pause]
ROBERTS: ...faithfully the office of president of the United States...

Second: Again in 2009, to make things official, they completed the oath in private later using the same Lincoln Bible.  It is this oath that crazy conspiracy theorist believe Obama took the oath on the Quran which he didn't. As an atheist, I don't really care what ancient book of superstitions the President takes the oath with. I prefer he took it with something more appropriate like a copy of the actual Constitution but other great books would be fine also, like Whitlman's Leaves of Grass or Emerson's Collected Essays.  

Third: In 2013, because the Constitution requires that the President take the oath on the January 20th, the President took the oath on Sunday, the day before Inauguration Day, in a private ceremony.   This time they used the Biden family Bible.

Fourth: Today, January 21st 2013, he took the oath again during Inauguration Day which apparently they never have on Sundays so it was today, a Monday.  Most of us had a holiday today so we could actually see it.

FDR took the oath four time because he served four terms.  Nothing quite so odd as Obama's reasons.

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