“The fact that Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath later that day in a manner and form that was correct, falsifies this ridiculous theory.”
I don’t have a dog in this fight. Obama’s behavior is just plain baffling.
1. Most legal scholars viewed a “do over” on the oath as completely unnecessary.
2. Yet Obama re-did it anyway: good for him. Why NOT eradicate any doubt on this point especially given that it was so easy to do? An ounce of prevention etc.
3. On his first day in office, Obama also made a huge point of his commitment to transparency in government. Again, within reason (since we actually do want a system in which the president can safely seek and obtain a broad range of candid advice on issues without those advising them worrying about seeing an out-of-context quote of theirs appearing in the NY Times), all power to him. Shining a light on what in the past might have been back-room deals can serve as a healthy anti-septic to corruption.
4. So in the above context, BHO’s behavior regarding the birth certificate (leaving aside many OTHER documents such as school transcripts routinely made available by past presidents to an ever-hungry press) is even more baffling. BHO has the lone power to legally make available his long form BC. Any other public official or policy advisor who might seek to do so risks going to jail. Litigants across the country are squandering their resources and those of taxpayers continuing to get him to just release that form, yet he STONEWALLS them rather than just produce the document in question.
YOU tell ME why BHO is behaving in such a fashion. There’s certainly no shortage of potential explanations: a) BHO is extremely arrogant and isn’t going to be pushed around by his critics; b) BHO is a timid weenie who fears that “caving” on this demand is simply going to fuel later more consequential demands, hence the best strategy is just to nip things in the bud; c) notwithstanding his “post-partisan” rhetoric, BHO is a partisan par excellence who DELIGHTS in poking his critics in the eye; d) BHO is so clueless and/or isolated by his advisors that they have implemented an expensive stonewall strategy without his even realizing it; or e) BHO has something to hide that either is extremely embarrassing or would demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is ineligible to serve as POTUS.
I’m not implying that the foregoing is a collectively exhaustive list of possibilities. But each could be plausibly argued without its defender necessarily having to be fitted with a tinfoil hat to do so.
At this juncture, I’m honestly struggling to come up with an explanation that fits the publicly available facts but which also doesn’t raise serious concerns about the character or temperament of the person who has now been entrusted with the Nuclear Football. Frankly, that is a bit scary.
One good effect of the do-over is that if he violates his oath of office, he can be doubly punished. (Twice as much as Clinton was...too bad two times zero is still zero.)