Happy Inauguration Day! Oaths today and tomorrow and more festivities tomorrow.

[No Elephants]

Constitution of the United States

Article II
Section 1.

The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows:


Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be appointed an elector.

{yadda, yadda, yadda, electoral stuff}

SNIP


No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.

In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation or inability, both of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.

The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services, a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"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."


Section 2.

The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Section 3.

He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

Section 4.

The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. {Amended by Amendment XX, below}

SNIP


Artice IV {paragraph 3 only}


The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

SNIP


AMENDMENT XX
{Passed by Congress March 2, 1932. Ratified January 23, 1933.}

Note: Article I, section 4, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of this amendment. In addition, a portion of the 12th amendment was superseded by section 3.

Section 1.
The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2.
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day....

Whodda thunk that two graduates of Harvard Law School, both of whom are supposed to be Constitutional experts could mess up that oath?

Obama did a better job than Roberts and, to be fair, he had more reason to be discombobulated that day than did Roberts.

As you may have noted, the Constitution says nothing about saying "So help me God" after the oath and therefore Roberts should not have prompted Obama to say it.

Supposedly, it is added because George Washington added it and other Presidents followed his lead. However, that story seems to be apochyrphal. Also, supposedly, people have poured over records created at the time of the Washington inaugurations, such as newspapers and no one found a reference to Washington adding anything to the oath. People were a lot more familiar with the Constitution then than they seem to be now, having just adopted it. So, I think someone would have noted a deviation.

In any event, even in legend, Washington added it on his own, so even if we are following a tradition that contrary to the letter of the Constitution for whatever reason, Roberts should not have prompted. It is neither in the Constitution nor the legend, but no one would realize that from watching the swearing in.

Indeed, nothing in the Constitution made reference to a Deity. None of the amendments mention a Deity, either.

And, as you can see from the 20th amendment quoted above, there was no provision for changing the date of the inauguration if the 20th fell on the Sabbath, whether the President's or the one celebrated by most of the nation. (An observant Orthodox Jew might have a problem with that.)

Some point to the dateline of the Constitution, which includes the phrase, "in the year of our Lord" (aka A.D.) However, that identified the year as being under either the Julian calendar (after Julius Caesar, not a believer in God) or the Julian calendar as re-adjusted by a Catholic monk in 525 C.E. and, more significantly for us, by Pope Gregory II in 1582, as opposed to some other calendars, in which the years were different. However, there had been other calendars, the Byzantine and a slew of regnal calendars, which began and ended with the reign of a new king or Emperor. So, you might have year 2 over and over over, but it would be preceded by the name of a different ruler. And certainly, the Jewish calendar still uses different years than the Gregorian calendar.

England, and therefore its colonies had only switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, so calendar issues, too, were relatively fresh in the minds of the Framers, who were more scholarly than many of us today. And there was really no other way to specify that you were using the years as numbered in either the Julian calendar or the Gregorian, the terms B.C.E. and C.E. having come into use--and not exactly universal use--only relatively recently. it was either "year of our Lord," or anno Domini, or A.D., three ways of indicating the same thing.

Bottom line: The Constitution was never, as some claim, a Christian document. To the contrary, given the new nation was very conscious of religion, the absence of any meaningful reference to a Deity is impressive.

And references to religion say only that there shall be no religious test for President, that Congress shall make no law establishing religion and that individuals shall have freedom of religion. Still, as far as we know, all but one of our Presidents has been non-Catholic Christian. The exceptionwas, of course, JFK, a Catholic Christian. So, there has been, one might surmise, a de facto test for the Presidency, totally contrary to the Constitution.

[formercia]

1. Second Term officially starts

Let's see what happens now.

[Enthusiast]

2. Yes, let's see......nt

[Enthusiast]

3. I was crazy enthusiastic in 2009.

Now, not so much.

[No Elephants]

4. I was crazy enthusiastic until the nominations started.

By Inauguration Day (invocation by Rick Warren), I was getting pretty disillusioned, but was still hopeful.

When he called the public option a "sliver," after having campaigned on its being the only way to control costs, I was further gone.

When he did the final amendments on ACA and it passed by reconciliaiton--still sans a meaningful public option--I was probably done.

Interspered with all that were comments coming out of the White House about liberals, for which only one apology or contradiction issued--and that was to Sarah Palin, which certainly did not help.

I had a friend, a dear sweet human being, who had died a horrible death before the age of 30 because he could not afford his medicine. While I had have many reasons for supporting Obama 2007-08, I had contacted everyone I knew before the election, Republican and Democrat (though I know few Republicans), even the neo theos, and begged them to vote for Obama based on his statements about the public option. I knew I would get push back and might totally alienate long time friends, especially the very religious ones, but I had done it anyway.

I wish I could get back my campaign donations on the grounds of misrepresentation on several of the issues that are important to me.

[Enthusiast]

5. There is no question

that Obama could have given us single payer considering the mandate he was given after the 2008 election.

Rick Warren was brought in as a measure to tamp down our expectations. And that was only the start. It's been punch the hippie ever since.


The mandate!

[No Elephants]

6. Nominations of Emanuel, Geithner, Gates, Daschle, et al. were the start.

I knew Daschle had been a huge figure in convincing him to run before he (Obama) had built up a record in the Senate that he would have to run against. Also knew that Daschle had been a major campaign advisor.

I had freakin' blinders on.

In 2008, that is.

I just wanted a Democrat, any Democrat, so badly after Bush.

And I decided that Obama was the most electible of the bunch, so I started donating to him near the end of 2007.

I was correct about that.

But, then, I started being a fan. That was my mistake.

Put those blinders on.

Defended him against all comers, like every good Obamabot.

Phone banked.

Donated.

Was thrilled that so many Republicans, from Julie Eisenhower to Colin Powell to Smerconish, endorsed him. (Duh!)

Got on line to vote by 6:30 a.m on election day because I just couldn't wait to vote for him.

:banghead:

Which scares me more than he does because he will be out of office in 4 years, but I am stuck with me until I die.

[No Elephants]

7. It was a perfect storm for Obama to win and Democrats to do well.

The nation was so over Dummya, Cheney, Rumsfeld that it wasn't funny.

And that was even before we learned of the economic collapse.

The Republican brand, such as it is, was badly fraying.

Obama was young, seemingly gifted and black and very personally appealing.

He taught Constitutional law after we'd all watch Bushco ignore the Constitution.

His opposition was McCain, Palin, for feck's sake.

"Get off my lawn" McCain, who had ruined his own brand by going 180 away from every sane position he had ever had.

Palin, who could not cite one provision of the Constitution or name one periodical she read regularly, possibly a heartbeat away from a man in his seventies. Palin with her racist dog whistles.

Then, the economic collapse, after which Obama looked sane and McCain looked like a crazy wind up toy gone awry.

Even George Will said that Obama behaved Presidentially, while McCain "scared some of us."

Axelrod, the Einstein of political campaigns, apparently vs. McCain's third string.

Well over half a billion in campaign donations--historic-- vs. McPalin running on public funding.

Perfect storm.