Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. had but one task in the Obama Inauguration Ceremony. In fact he had the most important part of the whole proceedings. It was his honor and his job to administer the oath of office. Justice Roberts blew it. He embarrassed himself and the United States, fore there he was in front of millions of people who were watching all over the world... twisting words around, leaving some words out and in the end putting into doubt the legitimacy of the Obama presidency. Why? Because in his arrogance Chief Justice John Roberts didn't read the oath from a index card. So today In the White House Map Room Roberts had to administer it again.
Just to make sure.
"We decided it was so much fun . . .," Obama joked while sitting on a couch in the Map Room. Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool reporters as Roberts donned his black robe.
"Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked.
"I am, and we're going to do it very slowly," Obama replied.
After a flawless recitation that included no Bible and took 25 seconds, Roberts smiled and said, "Congratulations, again."
Obama said, "Thank you, sir," and then added: "All right. The bad news for the [reporters] is there's 12 more balls."
A president is required by the Constitution to say, "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." At the inauguration, Roberts instead said: "that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully."
In a statement, White House counsel Greg Craig said the oath was re-administered "out of an abundance of caution."
"We believe that the oath of office was administered effectively and that the President was sworn in appropriately yesterday. But the oath appears in the Constitution itself," Craig's statement said.
Two presidents -- Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur -- have retaken the oath because of unusual circumstances the first time around. Justice Roberts will be asking himself a lot of questions for a long time. Chief for the chief is how he could let this national embarrassment happened on his watch.