Should Obama Take the Oath Again?

A case of nerves appeared to knock Chief Justice John Roberts off his "A game" a bit yesterday as he fumbled the words to the official presidential oath of office. Obama dutifully repeated the words as offered by Roberts, but now some constitutional experts are suggesting that Obama take the oath again just to be sure it's all legal:

Several constitutional lawyers said President Obama should, just to be safe, retake the oath of office that was flubbed by Chief Justice John Roberts.

The 35-word oath is explicitly prescribed in the Constitution, Article II, Section 1, which begins by saying the president "shall" take the oath "before he enter on the execution of his office."

The oath reads: "I 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."

In giving the oath, Roberts misplaced the word "faithfully," at which point Obama paused quizzically. Roberts then corrected himself, but Obama repeated the words as Roberts initially said them.

A do-over "would take him 30 seconds, he can do it in private, it's not a big deal, and he ought to do it just to be safe," said Boston University constitutional scholar and Supreme Court watcher Jack Beermann. "It's an open question whether he's president until he takes the proper oath."

The courts would probably never hear a challenge, and some might argue that Obama automatically took office at noon because that's when President Bush left the office. But because the procedure is so explicitly prescribed in the Constitution, Beermann said if he were Obama's lawyer, he would recommend retaking it, just as two previous presidents, Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur, did under similar circumstances.

Chris Wallace was kidding about this on the Fox broadcast yesterday, and one of my lefty regulars even suggested that this might have all been a devious plot by Roberts to get Obama back for voting against his confirmation. While some activists might try to make a case out of this I doubt any court would take it. If you want to go after Obama for something he said yesterday, don't bother with the oath. Go after that pedestrian speech.

UPDATE: Obama takes the oath again. Fixes the oath. Doesn't fix the speech.