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Chief Justice John Roberts botched the oath of office.

Barack Obama handled the situation with graceful aplomb. From my live-blogging:

The Chief Justice in fact screwed up the oath. The Constitution requires:

"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."

Roberts left out the word "faithfully." (He also said "President to the United States.") Obama saw the mistake and stopped himself to give Roberts a chance to fix it. Roberts redid the line, remembering to throw in "faithfully," but putting it in the wrong place ? after "President of the United States" ? and, this time, Obama went along with the wording. Close enough, I guess he figured. I wonder what Barack Obama was thinking. Maybe: Some textualist you turned out to be!

Let no one think Barack Obama made the mistake.

ADDED: I've relistened. Roberts puts "faithfully" after "President of the United States" the first time as well as the second. He did not leave it out.

Full post as published by Althouse on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).