Posted on 01/20/2009 9:50:10 AM PST by vadum
lol
Felt good didn’t it. I was savoring the last moments of freedom.
I don’t have a president, no matter what time this nogoodnik was sworn in.
“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.”
Obama did not qualify until he took the oath. That’s why the 20th Sec 3 applied.
But it’s technical only, and Obama is the President now, so the question is moot.
You've got to admit, though, that Atchison is a fascinating piece of Presidential trivia.
20th Amendment:
“The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January . . .; the terms of their successors shall then begin.”
Article II, sec. 1, cl. 8:
“Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation . . . .”
So Obama’s presidential term began at noon, but he could not execute his office until he was sworn in.
“You’ve got to admit, though, that Atchison is a fascinating piece of Presidential trivia.”
LOL, we still don’t have one. ROTFL
Last word. Ha!
Well, it was the last word until now. : )
Thursday, January 22, 2009
No, Joe Biden was not our 44th President
In a comment to my post on President Obama’s incorrectly recited oath of office, blogger Ted espouses the view that, because President Obama did not take the oath of office at noon Eastern Standard Time on January 20 (his incorrectly worded oath took place at 12:06 p.m. E.S.T.), it created a vacancy in the office of the president and Vice President Joe Biden succeeded to the presidency.
That is a cute argument, similar to the one used by some to promote the mistaken notion that David Rice Atchison was actually our 12th President (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Rice_Atchison#The_President_for_One_Day), but it ignores the fact that the presidential oath mandated by Article II, section 1, clause 8 of the Constitution is necessary for the “execution of [the] office” (i.e., for performing presidential acts, such as signing bills into law), not for accession to the office. The 20th Amendment to the Constitution makes clear that the new president’s term begins exactly at noon on January 20, and nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the presidential term does not commence until the president has taken his oath of office.
The view that not having taken the presidential oath creates a vacancy in the presidency also begs the question of how a person would be entitled to take the presidential oath (and afterwards begin to execute the office) if he had not become president beforehand. Had, say, Hillary Clinton taken the presidential oath on January 20, she would not have become president, because Article II does not provide that the oath makes one president, merely that if one has become president pursuant to the Constitution one needs to take the oath in order to carry out presidential acts. In the case of President Obama, he became president exactly at noon on January 20, 2009, as per the 20th Amendment, by virtue of having been elected president by the Electoral College.
So, no, Joe Biden was not our 44th President, not even for the six minutes before President Obama’s attempt at taking the oath of office.
http://auh2orepublican.blogspot.com/2009/01/no-joe-biden-was-not-our-44th-president.html
Last word.
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