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Headline of the Day

From the Daily Mail:

Former French President Chirac hospitalised after mauling by his clinically depressed poodle

Flubbing the Oath of Office: Not the First Time

Lots of flap about Chief Justice John Roberts flubbing his administration of the Oath of Office, and whether Obama is actually president, given that he didn’t repeat the Oath exactly as it is written in the Constitution.

Here’s the text in Article II of the Constitution:

"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."

Here’s Obama’s oath, as spoken:

"I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear that I will execute the office of President of the United States faithfully, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”

Obama's spoken misstep was the misplacement of the word “faithfully.” (Roberts also said “president to the United States,” but Obama wisely did not repeat the incorrect “to.” )

A cursory look at past inaugurals reveals that Obama is not the only one to take a slightly altered Oath.

Dwight Eisenhower added an extra “the,” saying: “...the office of the President of the United States...” in 1957.

In 1965, Lyndon Johnson said "the Presidency" rather than just "President," saying "...the office of the Presidency of the United States..."

And in 1973, Richard Nixon added an "and," saying “...preserve and protect and defend...”

ABC notes that in 1909 William Howard Taft also misspoke, saying "preserve, maintain and defend the Constitution."

Clearly, these little errors didn't stand in Taft, Ike, LBJ, or Nixon's way of serving as a legitimate president (well, OK, but Nixon's legitimacy problems had nothing to do with his Oath!). Taft even went on to become Chief Justice himself.

Two other tidbits: George H. W. Bush also started to interrupt during the first clause, just like Obama; and try repeating the whole thing at once, like FDR had to do in 1933!

One last comment about the Oath today: Did anyone else find it slightly offensive the way Roberts asked Obama "...so help you God?" as if to question Obama's faith? Of the Oaths I listened to, Roberts is the first to pose it as a question like that.

Obama's DNC and the "New" 50-State Strategy

Many people have been following Obama's evolving relationship with the formal Democratic Party organization with great interest. Will he abandon the 50-state strategy? Will he become complacent with respect to organizational party-building now that the Democrats are in the majority?

When DNC chairman Howard Dean was excluded from Obama's press conference announcing Gov. Tim Kaine (VA) as Dean's successor, many feared that Obama's new team would dismantle the 50-state strategy.

Turns out the slap was probably just a clash-of-personalities thing with Dean. Seems that Kaine intends to continue along the party-building path while updating the strategy to new conditions. Kaine just released a 27-minute video answering people's questions about what lies ahead. Here's a rush transcript with Kaine's notable quotes about the 50-state strategy:

“The 50-state strategy is really important going forward…President-Elect Obama and me, we very much are believers -- the results that the DNC has achieved under the strategy speak for themselves. Now, exactly what is the “new” version of the 50-state strategy: You never should just do what you did yesterday. You’ve got to analyze everything and figure out what’s the right way to do it for today and tomorrow. And what we need to do is sit down and analyze everything in the campaign and everything about the 50-state strategy to determine what is exactly the best thing to do in Texas, and in Idaho, and in other states, to keep pushing forward, so that we can be successful as Democrats. And I think it’s fair to say that the right strategy for Texas might be a different strategy than for Georgia. What we’ve done in Virginia gives me some ideas, but I’m not going to say that should apply equally to every other state. But we’re past the point where we’re going to write any state off or any region of the country. The 50-state strategy has been a success, and we’re going to continue it in new and exciting ways going forward.”
...
“Yes, the 50-state strategy –- investing in each state and each community –- we’ll continue it. We may do it in different ways, obviously, everything you do, you ought be asking yourself, can I do it better? And the answer should always be yes! We could always be better tomorrow than we were today. Chairman Dean’s strategy was successful –- the results speak for themselves –- and we’re going to make sure that as a party we continue to play strong in every state and in every community.”

In other breaking news from Marc Ambinder, another tidbit to suggest that new administration will enjoy a very close working relationship with the DNC after all. Obama's choice for DNC Executive Director, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon -- who will be basically running the DNC in 2009 while Kaine finishes out his term in VA -- will presumably get along well with the new deputy director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, husband Patrick Dillon. (Congrats and good luck to the Dillons.)

UPDATE, 1/18: Obama announces the merging of his campaign organization with the DNC. "Organizing for America" (aka "Obama 2.0") will be housed within the DNC but will presumably operate independently to some extent (how much is not yet clear). At first glance, this would seem to be a novel arrangement -- no Democratic president going back to JFK has tried to leverage his independent base of support for the benefit of his party and its regular operations. Yet how, specifically, these two entities will work together remains to be seen. Will OFA help with the party-building activities mentioned above? Or will the regular party apparatus be subordinated to OFA, overshadowed by its campaigns to build support for the president's legislative priorities? Time will tell.

Patrick McGoohan, RIP

Patrick McGoohan has passed away at the age of 80. During the 1960s, he created and starred in The Prisoner, a surreal television series that explored ideas about individualism, freedom, and power. AMC has now put the entire series online.

Forum Article

The most recent issue of the Forum includes an article on the 2008 election that I co-authored with Tom Schaller. Here's a link to the article and you can join the discussion on it (along with the other articles in the issue) over at the Monkey Cage.

"Loveable" Dick Cheney

The Politico reports that Dick Cheney thinks his negative public image is a bum rap. In fact, he describes himself as "a warm, loveable sort."

Words fail.