IT IS now understood that it wasn't Barack Obama who screwed up his own swearing in process; that guilt belongs to Chief Justice John Roberts who mis-quoted the oath by asking the President-elect to repeat: "“That I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully.”
Oopsies.
First of all, is not the president "to" the United States, but rather president "of" the United States. Hence, confused-Obama-stare number one.
But furthermore, the adjective "faithfully" was dislodged from its faithful (excuse the pun), place aside "execute," as in "faithfully execute", and wandered around the neighborhood to end up on the back porch of the "United States."
Neither man exactly recovered. Roberts repeated the phrasing, again wrong, "Faithfully the president of the United States." Faithfully, sure, but not "execute." In English, sentences have verbs.
Thankfully, the rest of the oath went on famously, the inauguration was triumphant, and we now have a president who won't wear a flight suit in public.
44? Um, What About Grover?
Obama stood before the crowd and proudly announced his honor in being among the "Forty-four Americans" who have "taken the presidential oath."
Well, he may be the 44th president, but he's not the 44th "American." (No, there isn't a secret foreigner that was once president.)
The math doesn't work out because of Grover Cleveland, a man who was president-- twice. Cleveland screws up the counting, because in the annals of history, he is counted as the 22nd and 24th president, as he was defeated as an incumbent, sat out while Benjamin Harrison was president for a term, then regained the office.
It was the same Grover Cleveland who was president either time, so it's actually only been 43 Americans, including Obama, who have held the office of chief executive, and therefore, taken the oath.
It's Official. The Bullet Beats the Ballot.
Politicians, who have to watch what they say, often surround themselves with whips, those who don't. The role of the running mate, for instance, is often to roll up their sleeves, get their hands a little dirty, and attack the opposing candidate.
As Obama stood ready to accept the oath of office, he was expected to frame his new presidency in the context of the civil rights movement--him being, of course, the first black president, so to speak.
But it would be rather self-serving of Obama to place himself as the logical climax of the civil rights movement. Luckily, in a speech that deserves to be recognized as among the finest of our young century (and possibly of the last 100 years), an old Jewish woman from California did that for him.
Let us now praise the words of Dianne Feinstein, senior senator from California, who in a way that was altogether fitting and proper, framed the Obama presidency through the legacies of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Hers was the greater speech given on Inauguration Day, saying about Obama, what Obama could not say about himself.
"The freedom of a people to choose its leaders is the root of liberty," said Feinstein as an opening thesis. This evinced the "Ballet or the Bullet" challenge, Malcolm X once posed to his followers: "It's the ballot or the bullet. Liberty or death."
Feinstein then answered that challenge: "Those who doubt the supremacy of the ballot over the bullet can never diminish the power engendered by nonviolent struggles for justice and equality, like the one that made this day possible."
But to doubt the ideology of Malcolm X was not enough. She needed also, to reinforce the work of MLK: "No triumph tainted by brutality could ever match the sweet victory of this hour and what it means to those who marched and died to make it a reality."
And like Lincoln at Gettysburg, facing his soldiers after their triumphs in battle, yet mourning the loss of war, and the struggles that remained before his great nation, she once again established at what stage the movement for civil rights was now in:
"Our work is not yet finished, but future generations will mark this morning as the turning point for real and necessary change in our nation. They will look back and remember that this was the moment when the dream that once echoed across history, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial finally reached the walls of the White House."
The moment when the words of MLK standing before Lincoln--"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"--rung true. When a man, of great character, was judged on that content, and elected, and trusted, with the highest office in this free nation of ours.
Daisies, Senator Feinstein. You have given this country a beautiful speech, and delivered to Obama a wonderful gift: The speech we as a nation needed, but the one speech he himself could not give. |
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