"I am in control here"
Posted on 01/20/2009 9:50:10 AM PST by vadum
Since nobody on Capitol Hill cares about the Constitution, this constitutes trivia.
The musical interlude at the inauguration ceremony that extended for about six minutes after 12 Noon today, after Joe Biden had already taken the oath of office as vice president, temporarily prevented Barack Obama from taking the presidential oath.
Obama did not, as at least one TV commenter said, automatically become president at Noon.
The Constitution is explicit. The president-to-be must take the oath and the outgoing president's term of office ends at 12 Noon. This is not a monarchy where the transfer of power takes place strictly by operation of law. The new president must agree to take on the job by saying so.
Article II, section 1, provides:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:The 20th Amendment sets the end of a presidential term at Jan. 20 at 12 Noon: "The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January...""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."
"I am in control here"
OH MY GOD!!! FOR A FEW MOMENTS GATES WAS PRESIDENT!!!!!! HOW DID WE SURVIVE????
Actually Obama became president at the stroke of noon. He had to take the oath before he could exercise the powers of the presidency but that didn't impact his status.
Actually, I was president during that brief time. I gave everyone the rest of the week off with pay, so relax and live a little.
I believe you are correct. Biden was Acting President for about 5 or 6 minutes.
Yeah, proponents of David Rice Atchison as the “true” 12th president make a big deal out of Zachary Taylor not taking his oath of office on March 4, 1849 because it fell on a Sunday, but if taking the oath was really a requirement to become president (rather than to execute the office) then Atchison couldn’t have been president, either, since he didn’t take the presidential oath on March 4, 1849, either.
I should have made my post more clear. Indeed, the President's term ends on the 20th at Noon and his successors starts immediately thereafter. In the past, there have been times when the Presidential exchange had taken place on Sunday, the 20th, but the formality of the Oath of Office wasn't administered until the Monday, the 21st.
If I had only known then I could have had you issue me a pardon for that little tax thing from a few years ago.
If you accept the argument that Obama wasn't president because he wasn't sworn in yet, Biden was not president for the same reason: he had not been sworn in as president. Only as vice-president.
LOL
Both are sworn in the the Chief Justice of the US - in private, early in the morning.
The public swearing in is just for show.
Time for folks to take a deep breath, it’s going to be a looooong 4 years.
But under Art II Sec 1, the President shall not enter into the execution of his office until he has taken the oath. So, Sec 3 of Amendment XX took effect for about 5 or 6 minutes, and Biden, who had previously taken his oath and was therefore the Vice President, was the Acting President for those 5 or 6 minutes.
It’s a distinction without a difference, but it is a technical correction.
See post 31. I dunno, it is interesting though.
IIRC, Reagan took the oath in a private ceremony on a Sunday (20Jan), then held the public ceremony on the 21st.
Corrections/revisions gladly accepted...
“1. The terms of the President and 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.”
If you read the whole thing, it say the new terms start immediately.
There was a time where we had no President. President Kennedy had been killed instantaneously on Elm Street just before going under the triple underpass (massive head wound with major portions of brain removed, even though they attempted to keep his heart going at Parkland Hospital but he was brain dead and also give last rights of the RCC)...while the Vice President was not sworn in as President by Justice of the Peace on the Presidential aircraft at Dallas Love Field for yet another few hours. So there, the USA had no living President for a couple of hours at least, and right during a major crisis. It was pretty hairy.
Hmmm. I now expect that Nancy Pelosi, for the skinny instant between end of 43, start of 44, will claim that SHE was president, and is therefore entitled to a presidential retirement, etc.
Hairy? Why? Who cares? How about we see how long we can live our ordinary daily lives without a President of the United States?
Aside from taking the IRS up the posterior every payday, what relevance does the vast majority of the federal government have to any of us?
Impeach the bastard.
Cheney still has him beat. Cheney was "President" for a few hours while President Bush was undergoing routine surgery for something or other some months back.
FR thread about it was pretty fun.
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