Chief Justice John Roberts re-administered the oath of office to President Obama Wednesday night in a move that Obama aides described as an 'abundance of caution,' after the Roberts took one said one word out of sequence while leading Obama in the oath on Tuesday.
No one was really questioning whether Obama was president, but the conspiracy theorists were warming up, openly wondering whether the Chief Justice, appointed by the outgoing President Bush, had intentionally mangled the oath. So to put the crazy theories to rest premptivley, Obama retook the oath in the Map Room of the White House Wednesday. This time, however, there was no bible, no top coat, no milllions around the globe hanging on his every word.
Here is the pool report issued by the White House to journalists with the obvious urgency reflected in the punctuation and capitalization:
"At 735 pm, Roberts administred the oath of office again to obama in the map room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a "an abundance of caution."
"We decided it was so much fun…" Obama joked while sitting on a couch. Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool 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. Oath took 25 seconds. After a flawless recitation, roberts smiled and said, "congratulations, again." Obama said, "thank you, sir."
Smattering of applause.
"All right." Obama said. "The bad news for the pool is there's 12 more balls."
— pool reporter
More Pool:
At the swearing in, per (Obama spokesman Bill) burton: Justice Roberts with a staff member, Robert Gibbs, David Axelrod, Greg Craig, a WH Photographer and POTUS Also four reporters: st pete, bloomberg, ap and reuters. Some of you have asked and no, michelle obama was not there. When we walked into Map Room, obama was on the couch, and roberts was in a chair to his left. For the swearing in, obama and roberts stood across room from where they had sat, with us and staff in loose semicircle. Obama on the rt, roberts on left. Add: Sorry, meant to add: obama raised his right hand and left was at his side.
— pool reporter