Obama repeats fluffed oath of office

The centerpiece of Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony on Tuesday - the oath of office - had to be repeated yesterday at the White house after American constitutional experts expressed concern over the ceremony’s legitimacy. This was because – in front of a crowd of two million and a global TV audience of billions - the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, John Roberts, fluffed his lines.

Wearing his official robe, Roberts made a trip to the White House on Wednesday and readministered the oath before an audience of just 12 people, including White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, White House Counsel Greg Craig, senior adviser David Axelrod, and the official White House photographer. It is not known whether the Lincoln Bible used for the first swearing-in was used or not.

The oath is supposed to read: "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." But on Tuesday Roberts said "execute the office of President of the United States faithfully," rather than "faithfully execute". A perplexed Obama paused and allowed Roberts to correct himself.

Yesterday, however, it all went swimmingly. "Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked. "I am and we are going to do it very slowly," Obama replied.

A statement issued by the White House afterwards, said: "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. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time."
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