Faithfully yours ...

I don't know for whom I felt sorrier yesterday: President Barack Obama or Chief Justice John Roberts (what a great name). Everything else about the day had probably been choreographed to the n-th degree. And then it came time for the Presidential Oath of Office -- a grand total of about 35 words. Obviously no one had earlier put the President and the Chief Justice in the same room for five minutes and said, "OK, you two do a dress rehearsal. I know, I know. It's dirt simple and you've both memorized the Oath, but just do it. You know stuff happens." And they didn't and then it did.

Roberts got thrown off when the President interrupted and started repeating the words "I, Barack Hussein ..." before Roberts was ready for him to begin. That gives Roberts one too many things to think about and so he proceeds to change the wording of the oath from that dictated in the Constitution. I thought the look on the President's face was priceless: You STUPID sonofabich. Now what the heck am I supposed to do? Say it incorrectly like you just quoted, or say it the way I know it's written? So the President starts in and then Roberts compounds the problem by interrupting the President. President Obama eventually elected to choose some from each side of the menu: failing to repeat the oath as written and yet not repeating exactly what Roberts had asked him to say. I bet President Obama thought when it was mercifully over, Great. Four minutes into the world's most difficult job and I've already fouled up. Well, the good news is that the press corp (and blog writers) won't have to make something up to write about.

Or maybe he thought, It's like a new car. You drive like you're on eggs until you get the first dent and from that point on, you just motor on down the road -- worrying more about where you're going than worrying about denting the car. I've had my first dent, so look out world: I'm comin'.

And then I had to laugh because one of the TV news reporters mused out loud about whether the President was really the President since the Oath was not correctly administered. Oath or no oath, the man was President from noon yesterday per 20th Amendment to the Constitution. The reporter should've known that.

I've already been reading that the white conservatives are going to take it to court about whether the Presidency is all legal or not. HELLO! Who are you going to take your case to? The Supreme Court? Like John Roberts's Supreme Court? Well, I wonder how THAT'S going to turn out?

Maybe I'm not listening in the right places but it also wouldn't surprise me if some people are saying, "Just another example of the white guy messing with the black guy."

I should say that President Obama was gracious to Roberts when asked about the oath taking later, saying something like, "Oh, you know, we were both nervous .... yada, yada."

My final thought: I'm glad it wasn't me up there in either role. I'd've probably forgotten all the words, puked, and then passed out. Mr. President, things are never so bad they couldn't be worse. Go drive that car like crazy.