Posted on 01/20/2009 8:49:03 PM PST by DouglasKC
Have you heard?
Chief Justice Roberts mixed some words around in the Presidential oath that Presidents take upon assuming the office.
The oath should read as follows:
"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."
It seems that Chief Justice Roberts put the word "faithfully" in the wrong place. It was then repeated incorrectly by Mr. Obama.
Should we give Mr. Obama a pass?
I don't think so. And I'll explain why.
Mr. Obama should have known the oath backwards and forwards. He is a constitutional scholar. He must have studied the oath. He surely was briefed on the correct wording.
If you watch the swearing in, it seems certain that Mr. Obama realizes that Chief Justice Roberts has stated the oath wrong. Yet.
Yet Mr. Obama repeats it back, wrong also.
What does this show? We have two possiblities.
The first is that Mr. Obama really didn't know the oath. He never memorized it. He didn't know that the words were mixed up. As stated previously this isn't really plausible. He knew it.
The second option is rather unsettling. Mr. Obama knew the oath. He knew it backward and forward. He knew the right and proper wording specified by the Constitution of the United States. Yet he repeated back the error.
No big deal?
Think about it. This was Mr. Obama's very first act as President. It was a relatively high pressure situation. Around the world there were millions of eyes focused on him. Expectations were high. Nerves, no doubt, were on edge. Yet, when faced with standing up for the right wording, he folded. He agreed with error.
Now maybe he did this to save Chief Justice Roberts from an embarrassing situation. Maybe he did it to prevent himself from appearing "wrong" to the public. Maybe he just wanted to put forth the appearance that everything went smoothly. But are these the attributes we want in a President?
We want the President to be a leader. We want him to stand up for what's right even when everybody else is wrong. We want him to make the decision in the most pressure packed situations. We want him to uphold the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic.
Yet at his very first opportunity he decided that getting along at the moment was more important than a constitutional requirement.
It's going to be a long four, or eight, years.
No, Obama did by starting his reply before Roberts was finished.
I agree.
So, between noon and 12:05, who was doing the executing of presidential business? I suppose that would be the continuing Speaker of the House, right? Are there any executive orders signed by Nancy Pelosi? Where was she for those few minutes?
If we choke on the gnats, one wonders whether we will even recognize the camel as we swallow it.
I for one do believe that we are, or ought to be, better than that.
Got a source for that?
You might be surprised to hear this, but the government of the United States can go on for some time without need for Executive Orders.
People keep missing my point. It's not about the oath. It's about him making a decision to forgo doing the right thing. He looked at the situation and said "Well, I know he said told me to say the oath incorrectly. What do I do? Ah, heck, I'll just say it wrong too. Seem like the best option right now."
Get it? He didn't do the right thing. He did the expedient thing.
Exactly any small thing Bush did wrong it was made into a big issue. It was 8 years of nothing but hearing out evil or stupid Bush was. Payback is a bitch!
Yaah, that would have been the right thing to do. And nobody on FR would be critical of Obama if he did, right?
That jumped out at me too. Do you think Obama would have said it without the prompt?
Roberts's failure to recite the oath properly doesn't excuse Obama from the requirement to take the oath before executing the office of President.
The most prudent thing would be to have just said it correctly no matter what Robert said. It's called leadership. It's called doing the right thing in the face of adversity. It's called being prepared for anything.
I noticed that. I also wonder if Robert's flubbed line at the beginning was Freudian (he doubts 0bama's faith), or even intentional, given that 0bama may not be eligible to be president.
Or maybe Roberts has just been recently ruminating the ramifications of totally removing "faith" from the halls of justice, and the imagined scenario included editing the oath of office to be politically correct.
He would first have to say “excuse me Justice Roberts I messed up the first part of this oath thing and lets start over”.
B Hussein Obama on the other hand, was ALWAYS late to Senate hearings. Must see Obama “Sorry I'm late” video -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah9W24oMIRc
Obama is a mess. Flubbing the oaf, not understanding the tradition of signing the 3 folders, giving the pen back...
Obama has a history of BEING LATE. Why? He's gotten away with it. His refusal to follow the rules, be a person of his word in regards to appointments was showcased on the world stage today.
Hussein's online minions read these threads and these criticisms will be addressed by Axelrod. If Hussein had followed Clinton, it wouldn't be such a problem. But he's following the professional, President Bush. And his lack of professionalism is all the more highlighted. Moreover, he is the First and Only President to take the oaf of office after 12:00 pm on January 20th, he interrupted the Chief Justice and did not repeat the constitutional requirement verbatim. He's cut corners his whole life, and they are finally catching up to him in a negative way.
The oath is meaningless since Obama was born in kenya and his presidency is illegal.
but since when did obama follow the constitution?
oh yes. Obama is uh uh uh stupid.
Wrong.
Obama interrupted Chief Justice Roberts. Obama fumbled first.
I did say that there are more important issues to get yourself in an uproar over than tripping on some words. One groom promised to "lung, honor, and cherish" his bride...didn't mean they weren't married after folks had a chuckle.
How about getting upset over Obama's support of unfettered abortion, or killing babies that actually survived that horrible torture, or his disdain for gun owners, or his wild goody grabbing friends, or the Senate's desire to move ahead with cabinet post approvals without any kind of vetting, or his bringing terrorists from Gitmo to American soil?
Sorry, I'll save my angst for something more important than The Empty Suit's verbal gaffs.
I agree, this is the first (and probably only) pass B0 will get from me. Roberts blew it.
Roberts more than made up for it with the “So help you God?”. I just finished watching the replay at YouTube (didn’t watch any TV today), and I did notice the emphasis of the “So help you God?” as a question, rather than a statement for Hussein to parrot back to him.
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