An oath so nice, they did it twice

Here's a story that escaped me yesterday: after the somewhat embarrassing screw-up by Chief Justice John Roberts when administering the oath of office to President Obama on Tuesday, the two arranged to have a do-over in the White House last evening.

"We decided it was so much fun ...," Obama joked while sitting on a couch in the Map Room. Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool reporters 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.

After a flawless recitation that included no Bible and took 25 seconds, Roberts smiled and said, "Congratulations, again."

Obama said, "Thank you, sir," and then added: "All right. The bad news for the [reporters] is there's 12 more balls."

[...]

In a statement, White House counsel Greg Craig said the oath was re-administered "out of an abundance of caution."

"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," Craig's statement said.

Two presidents -- Calvin Coolidge and Chester A. Arthur -- have retaken the oath because of unusual circumstances the first time around.

As an aside, isn't it nice to have a president with a genuinely good sense of humor?

Anyway, notwithstanding the fact that the oath itself is purely ceremonial and in fact has nothing to do with the president's actual accession to power (the 20th Amendment provides that the changeover occurs precisely at noon and does not stipulate the necessity of the oath), it was a nice touch to do it again, thereby silencing the screeching of the insane wingnuts who insist that by failing to take the correct oath on Tuesday, President Obama somehow is not really president. Yeah, I'll have what you're smoking, dude ...

Of course, the best laid plans ... The President did not use a Bible the second time around, so naturally the aforementioned screeching has taken a new tack:

jonfromcali wrote, "How long before the crazies start bloviating about the fact that Obama didn't use a Bible the time he got the oath right -- clear proof that he's a Muslim and doesn't plan to rule by Christian principles?..."

Not long.

goldmineman said, "Obama has still NOT been properly sworn in! He is NOT the POTUS until he says the oathe correctly (as written in the Constituion) and swears on the Bible. He ain't the president!"

And Bitter_Bill wrote, "He didn't use a Bible, for this, the official oath. Wonder why?"

Besides once again proving my maxim that Wingnuts Can't Spell, the utter contempt they have for facts is astonishing. A simple Google search reveals that the use of the Bible is a tradition, not a requirement, and indeed there have been presidents who did not use one at all -- for example, John Quincy Adams, who swore on a book of American laws.

So, in short, the wingnuts need to shut the hell up and enjoy the Obama presidency, as dignity, responsibility, and lawful behavior return to the White House after a painful eight-year absence.