If you watch the video with this in mind, you can see Obama's amusement, followed by his decision to go ahead and say it Roberts's way.
****UPDATE****
According to the Huffington Post, Obama and Roberts re-did the oath on Wednesday night, just to be sure.
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.
2 comments:
NPR this morning talked about how Obama, caught between the right thing and the polite thing, eventually chose, as you pointed out, the polite thing. But they also reminded listeners that Roberts was an appointment that Obama resisted, that Obama has taken positions directly opposed to Roberts' judgments... and still they fought to be the more polite--Roberts restating the oath correctly and Obama deferring to Roberts' wording.
Disagreeing politely, with deferrence to one's inherent human flaws and ignoring them even as others look on--I wonder how Bush might have responded. Certainly not as gracefully or with as much good humor (remember the Bush sneer?) Sets a nice tone for a new presidency, don't you think?
I couldn't have said it better myself.
But do you think Bush would have even noticed the slightly altered wording?
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