The untold story of the Oath of Office re-do

The White House press corps gave Robert Gibbs a very hard time Thursday, during the new press secretary's first White House press briefing, about the press pool's access to the re-do of the president's oath of office.

Again and again, reporters demanded to know why television cameras, radio reporters and independent photographers were not allowed into the White House Map Room to witness the newsworthy and perhaps even historically significant event.

If they would stop thinking about themselves for five minutes, they would see what's right in front of them, the obvious fact that President Obama was trying not to embarrass the Chief Justice of the United States.

Think about it. Twelve o'clock noon on January 20th was a moment for the annals of history, a moment that will be replayed forever alongside those grainy clips of Martin Luther King at the Lincoln Memorial, a moment in time that will never be repeated. The world watched as Chief Justice John Roberts swore in the first African-American president of the United States, Barack Obama.

And John Roberts lived the actor's nightmare. He forgot his lines.

Actually, in the actor's nightmare he would also have been naked, so he can console himself that it could have been worse.

The point is that the Chief Justice of the United States suffered an embarrassment and the new president was sensitive to it. Did you see the clip of Vice President Joe Biden making a crack about the Chief Justice's memory? Did you see President Obama's horrified and icy reaction?

There can be no doubt, if you think about it, that the president excluded TV and radio reporters from the press pool to spare Chief Justice Roberts the further embarrassment of having an endless loop of his error on the news for the next twenty-four hours and perhaps for the next twenty-four years.

President Obama and his press secretary can't say that, of course. That would be even more embarrassing to the Chief Justice.

Alas, their best-laid plans went awry because a reporter for Bloomberg News recorded the event on a handheld audio cassette recorder and now everybody can listen to it on YouTube.

And if you listen to it, you'll hear something interesting.

You'll hear Chief Justice John Roberts emphasize a particular word in the oath of office.

This is the oath taken by the new president:

"I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear 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. So help me God."

When Chief Justice Roberts said those words, he said them like this:

"...and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Maybe that little bit of emphasis doesn't mean anything at all.

Or maybe it's the way the Chief Justice is accustomed to reciting the words when he's having a discussion about the oath of office, immediately following a sentence that goes something like this: "The president's oath is not to preserve, protect and defend the United States. It's to...."

Maybe that's the kind of discussion the Chief Justice had after he learned that President Bush authorized warrantless wiretapping in violation of the Fourth Amendment, citing his duty to protect the United States.

Or maybe not.

But this much is certain. The Constitution requires the president to take an oath when he's sworn into office. The exact language of the oath is written in Article II, Section 1. And somebody -- either John Roberts or Barack Obama, or both -- refused to blow off the requirements of the Constitution with a casual, "Close enough for government work."

There's nothing embarrassing about that.


Copyright 2009

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