Obama slips a word; repeats oath of office

Washington, Jan 22: Barack Obama repeated the oath of office for second time on Wednesday, Jan 21 as he missed out some words during the oath taking ceremony. Certain legal concerns were raised after Obama and US Chief Justice John Roberts erred a word during Tuesday, Jan 20 in the inaugural ceremony.

Certain constitutional scholars lamented that Obama could not be considered 'President' technically as Roberts, attempting to recite the oath of office by memory, misplaced the word 'faithfully' while administering the oath to Obama.

"We believe that the oath was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately on Tuesday, Jan 20." White House chief counsel Greg Craig said in a statement. "But the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time."

The slip was here. The US constitution specifies that the Presidential oath must say, "I will faithfully execute the office of the president of the United States." But Roberts put the word 'faithfully' at the end of the sentence. Obama paused to correct himself and repeated the sentence after Roberts corrected himself

Most scholars said the slip did not matter much, but one expert, Boston University scholar Jack Beermann, told San Francisco Chronicle it remained an 'open question' whether Obama was actually president if the oath was administered improperly.

At 7:35 pm on Wednesday, Jan 21 evening, Justice Roberts administered the oath again without erring a word. The scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters.

"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.

Roberts put on his black robe. "Are you ready to take the oath?" he said.

"I am, and we're going to do it very slowly," Obama replied.

Roberts then led Obama through the oath without any missteps.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)