Even if you didn’t vote in 2008, there’s a good chance you watched the Presidential Inauguration. As far as magical incantations are concerned, the Presidential Oath of Office is the extra-special sentence that must be uttered. Doubtless, there are people in the frantic fringe who believe that if these words aren’t spoken in a specific way, then Obama must not be the US President.

There are many different oaths that presidents have sworn over the years, and no president has been faithful to the real oath for a long time. Article II section 1 of the US Constitution states that the following is the original oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) 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.

The original wording is a curiosity and little more, by this point. I won’t discuss whether or not it is a good sign, but the oath has drifted from this template. In 2009, the oath has become this trainwreck:

Here’s the transcript:

ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama…
OBAMA: I, Barack…
ROBERTS: … do solemnly swear…
OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…
ROBERTS: … that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully…
OBAMA: … that I will execute…
ROBERTS: … faithfully the office of president of the United States…
OBAMA: … the office of president of the United States faithfully…
ROBERTS: … and will to the best of my ability…
OBAMA: … and will to the best of my ability…
ROBERTS: … preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
OBAMA: … preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
ROBERTS: So help you God?
OBAMA: So help me God.
ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.

I interpret Roberts’ oath as being highly politicized, including Roberts forgetting the word “faithfully”, and phrasing “so help you god?” as a question instead of a statement. Just a note: the phrase “so help me god” is not strictly in the oath, according to the US Constitution.

This is a strange tact, and I don’t like it. Obama had to prompt Roberts to be faithful to the word-ordering in US Constitution, which is pretty weak performance from the Chief Justice. As much as I want to be beyond political in-fighting, we can’t have the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court going wacky-activist, can we?

[UPDATE 2008-01-20]
The 20th Amendment to the US Constitution states:

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

In other words, the old president is out, and the new president is in, all according to a time trigger, and not contingent on the utterance of a specific oath. Yes, it was different from the wording in Article II, but we’ve been comfortable with adding “so help me god” for years, and this situation isn’t that exceptional…

I’ll even grant Roberts a pass on not memorizing the US Constitution, but in doing so, I will give Obama extra props for being vigilant about certain words being out of order.
[/UPDATE]