Barack Obama has already been sworn in twice as president. Some
new conspiracy theory? No, but it is part of a true story that
opens Jeffrey Toobin's newly published "The
Oath."
Prior to the 2008 inaugural ceremony, U.S. Supreme Court Chief
Justice John Roberts had decided to administer the presidential
oath from memory. His frequent rehearsals had caused Mrs. Roberts
to remark that, "At this point the dog thinks it's the
president." At the ceremony, Obama prematurely interrupted the
expected cadence, throwing off Roberts' timing and causing some
minor bumbling before they finished on track.
This kerfuffle led neophyte White House lawyers to recommend
that the oath be re-administered to deflect any challenges to the
legitimacy of Obama's presidency. Toobin notes that Roberts had
not blamed anyone for the mix-up. But he would not read the oath
from a script at the redo. Obama supposedly responded,
"We're going to do it very slowly." Adding his
literary gloss,
