Why Obama had to take oath again

By Agencies

After the swearing-in hitch heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office for a second time.

The oathing was repeated apparently to lock any loopholes for legal action with possible claims that the one he swore in front of over 1.5 million people did not conform exactly to the words as written in the constitution.

Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House in a rare do-it-again.

The surprise repeat of the oath came in response to Tuesday’s much-noticed stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.

Don’t worry, the White House says: Obama has still been President since noon on Inauguration Day.

Oathing history

Obama became the third president in the America’s presidential oathing history to repeat the oath.

Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called "an abundance of caution."

This time, the scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters, not the Capitol platform before the whole watching world.

"We decided that because it was so much fun...," Obama joked to reporters who followed Press Secretary Robert Gibbs into the room.

No TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in. A few of Obama’s closest aides were there, along with a White House photographer.

Chief Justice Roberts put on his black robe for the short ceremony.

"Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked.

"Yes, I am," Obama said. "And we’re going to do it very slowly."

Roberts then led Obama through the oath without any mis-steps.

The President said he did not have his Bible with him, but that the oath was binding anyway.

Following the 25-second ceremony, Roberts offered his congratulations.

Then Obama said: "Thank you sir. All right. The bad news for the [reporters] is there’s 12 more balls," said Obama, referring to the 10 inaugural balls he and his wife, Michelle, attended Tuesday night.

The original, bungled version on Tuesday caught observers by surprise and then got replayed on cable news shows. It happened when Obama interrupted Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.

Next in the oath is the phrase " ... that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States."

But Roberts re-arranged the order of the words, not saying "faithfully" until after "President of the United States."

That appeared to throw Obama off, as he apparently had rehearsed the words. He stopped abruptly at the word "execute."

Recognising something was off, Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting "faithfully" in the right place but without repeating "execute."

Repeated

But Obama then repeated Roberts’ original, incorrect version: "... the office of President of the United States faithfully."

Craig, the White House lawyer, said in a statement released on Wednesday evening: "We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the President was sworn in appropriately yesterday. Yet the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time."

The Constitution is clear about the exact wording of the oath and as a result, some constitutional experts have said that a do-over probably wasn’t necessary but also couldn’t hurt.

Two other previous presidents have repeated the oath because of similar issues, Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur.

Arthur, who served from 1881 to 1885, was sworn in by the Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court at his home in a private ceremony following the assassination of former President James Garfield.

Second time

Arthur was sworn in a second time by the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court two days later at the Capitol.

In Coolidge’s case, he took the oath of office on August 2, 1923, at his father’s Vermont home following the death of former president Warren Harding.

Coolidge’s father was a justice of the peace and administered the oath. Concerns over the jurisdiction of Coolidge’s father led to Coolidge taking a second oath in Washington.