Roberts and Obama Reunite for Inaugural Do-Over

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The Obama White House announced Wednesday evening that the president re-performed the oath of office after yesterday’s hiccup — not because they felt he had to, but just to be on the safe side:

The following is a statement from White House Counsel Greg Craig.

“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. And out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time.”

The pool report says that Roberts asked Obama if he was ready, to which the new chief executive replied: “I am, and we’re going to do it very slowly.”

Unfortunately, it would likely have been a violation of the separation of powers for Obama to have ordered Roberts to write, “I will not bungle the presidential oath,” 100 times.

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