Obama 3rd American President to Retake Oath; Hoover Never Said Oath Perfectly

[tekisui]

Joking that it was so much fun he had to do it again, Barack Obama became the third U.S. president to take the oath of office a second time because of concerns over the initial swearing-in.

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts again delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night in the White House Map Room, a day after the president took it in front of more than 1.5 million people on the steps of the Capitol in Washington.

Several of the president's aides, a handful of reporters and a White House photographer attended the brief ceremony. No television camera crews or news photographers were present, but the ceremony was audiotaped.

Obama didn't use a Bible for the second oath, but it is still binding.

(snip)

Obama joins Chester Arthur and Calvin Coolidge as U.S. presidents who have had to retake the oath of office because of unusual circumstances.

Arthur, who served from 1881 to 1885, was sworn in by the chief justice of the New York Supreme Court at his home in a private ceremony following the assassination of former president James Garfield. Arthur was sworn in a second time by the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court two days later at the Capitol.

In Coolidge's case, he took the oath of office at his father's Vermont home following the death of former president Warren Harding. Coolidge's father was a justice of the peace and administered the oath. Concerns about the jurisdiction of Coolidge's father led to Coolidge taking a second oath later in Washington.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/01/22/obama-oath.html

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In 1929 Chief Justice William Howard Taft administered the oath of office to Herbert Hoover. Taft had been a President. He’s the only President then to serve as Chief Justice to administer the oath of office to a President. But when Taft read the oath of office he made a mistake. In stead of asking Hoover to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution he said, “preserve, maintain and defend.” Well, it seemed to have just passed by, but this was broadcast on the radio. A 13 year old student heard this and she said that’s wrong. She had memorized the oath. She wrote Taft a letter. She said you goofed. He wrote her back and said you're quite right. In fact she said, you said “preserve, maintain and defend.” He said you’re right, I didn’t get it right, but I didn’t say it that way. I said, “preserve, maintain and protect.”

Well she was sure she was right, and sure enough, the news media checked their recordings and she was right and Taft was wrong twice.

http://fpc.state.gov/114510.htm

[Renew Deal]

1. The way I'm reading this, Obama is the fourth.

:shrug:

[geardaddy]

2. The article doesn't say that Hoover

took the oath more than once.

[Renew Deal]

4. Aaaaah

:dunce:

[tekisui]

3. Hoover never retook it.

Chester Arthur and Calvin Coolidge each took the oath twice. Hoover said it wrong at Taft's prompting, but never corrected it.

This shows the absurdity of the RWers moaning. Hoover was president, even while using a wrong word. Obama, with a correct word misplaced was just as legitimate.

[Virginia Dare]

16. Some right winger fringe organization would have sued..

like they did over the birth certificate. This will hopefully shut them up. We'll see.

[onenote]

5. Reagan and Eisenhower also "retook" the oath

January 20 fell on a sunday in 1957 and again in 1985. So in those years, the president elect took the oath in a private ceremony on the 20th, and then again during the "public" inauguration ceremony, which was held on January 21st each year.

[kath]

6. WTF? Why not on a Sunday - the Constitution says Jan. 20. Period. No exception for what day of

the week the 20th falls on.

[onenote]

8. yep, and the swearing in took place on the 20th.

The public ceremony took place the next day. So the Constitutional requirement was satisfied.

[onenote]

10. Oh, and BTW, I believe that January 20, 2013 is a Sunday...

So, based on tradition, Obama could end up taking the oath twice again (if they stick with the practice of moving the public festivities to Monday)

[CreekDog]

14. That was Superbowl Sunday (1/20/1985)

[Clio the Leo]

7. Ha ha, I'm not sure I'd cite Hoover as an example of ANYTHING! lol NT

[Cha]

9. I'm glad he took it over.

YAY.

[treestar]

11. The Constitution doesn't say who gives it

So where was the problem with Coolidge's?

[PVnRT]

13. Well, Coolidge was an ass and a terrible president

[Lars39]

12. I just like the idea of Roberts being summoned to the WH to correct his mistake.

Kinda lets Roberts know who is president now. :)

[Virginia Dare]

15. Roberts is a pathetic fuck up...

I keep hearing about how brilliant he is...:eyes: Sorry, but I don't have a lot of faith in a Chief Justice who can't read a few simple words from a page. What's the matter, can't he deal with a little pressure? He should have had the damned thing memorized. What an idiot.

[bdamomma]

17. the most important oath Roberts messed up on

they should have asked him to recite it when they confirmed him!!!!!

[Virginia Dare]

18. Good idea, that should be part of the confirmation process now..

they should have to stand up and recite the oath in front of congress, like we used to have to recite things in class. What a bozo.