Dan's Papers -January 22, 2009 -

Everything went absolutely on time like clockwork. Arethra Franklin sang. The quartet played. An Associate Supreme Court Justice administered the Oath to Vice President Joe Biden. And then, at exactly as the noon hour struck, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts stepped up to administer the Oath of Office to Barack Obama. It would take just one minute and it had to take just that amount of time because by law, at exactly one minute after 12, the new Presidential Designate, having sworn his oath, is officially the new President of the United States.

We were having a big Inauguration Day party at our house in East Hampton in front of our wide screen television set at this time and Chris and I invited many close friends, both republicans and democrats. (We would have liked to have gone to the blast at Bay Street in Sag Harbor, but we didn't hear about it until the last minute.) As Obama stepped up to receive the oath, one of the people in the room stood up and shouted, "Thank God Bush is GONE! Yippeee!" One Bush supporter in the room - yes there still are some - held his head in his hands and shook his head.

Anyway, as we all know, the Chief Justice botched the oath. How could this happen? As you probably know, Obama and Roberts are not close friends. Indeed, Obama voted against confirming Roberts to the Supreme Court, saying that Roberts believed in everything that he did not, so his vote was no.

Roberts is such a straight shooter. He apparently had memorized the oath. Or thought he did. He did not bring any notes with him in any case.

And then, he said, "Do You, Barack Hussein Obama," and he paused as he was supposed to. Sitting in front of the TV I was taken aback at how Roberts had said the word "Hussein." It came out as a hiss. Maybe he never actually practiced the oath using Obama's full name, and it came as a surprise to him that he had to use all three names. In any case, it seemed to be something of a surprise to him that that word should pass his lips on that particular occasion. And it threw him off, or so it seemed to me. But he pressed on. Actually, he was supposed to pause long enough at that point for Obama, who had his hand on the Bible and his hand raised, to repeat back his name to Roberts. Indeed, he was doing so. Now the two were talking at the same time. And as you know, moments later, Roberts forgot to insert the word "faithfully," and then, at the end, referred to what Obama would now become as President TO the United States instead of FOR it. What a mess.

So what got done? They continued on after the conclusion of the "oath" as if nothing had happened. There was mention of the stumbling by the TV commentator. Whatever it was, it was enough. He had certainly sworn to SOMETHING. And he had, after all, having taken the oath, been officially and loudly declared the President of the United States.

Later that day, it turned out, the two men convened in the White House map room where, for a second time, the oath was administered, this time correctly.

Nobody really knew if it counted, but the idea was, when constitutional lawyers convened to discuss the situation and then summoned the two men to the map room, that in this litigious society here in the United States, it would be better safe than sorry.

But it seems to me that second time it still was not administered correctly. The correct way is outside, right where God can see it. That is the way it has always been, rain or shine, sleet or snow, since George Washington first raised his right hand.

At one particular oath, for William Henry Harrison in 1848, the weather was so bitter cold that after taking the oath and making his acceptance speech - which Harrison insisted on doing in his shirt sleeves to show what a man he was - he became sick, took to his bed, and when it developed into pneumonia, died. It was 18 days later and the shortest Presidency in history. But God had heard him deliver that oath, and, by God, there was little doubt he was President when he died.

Two days later, on a nice sunny winter day, his Vice President, John Tyler, took the oath to take over the Presidency. And God was once again watching. (Two years later, Tyler married 18-year-old Julia Gardiner of East Hampton. It was the only time a wedding for a sitting President was held in the White House.)

This map room thing is going to come back to haunt them. There's going to be a lawyer who claims that Obama still is not President.