Call me a stickler for the rules, but this is the kind of analysis I was suprised not to see more of on CNN, BCC, Sky et al in the immediate aftermath of Obama's inauguration. OK so the inauguration speech was suitably and predictably strong in tone, chock full of rhetoric and grandiose statements (lots of pleas to a divine being, looking forward to "new horizons", patriotism galore).
But wasn't it more interesting that the US Supreme Court Chief Justice - the most senior judge in the land - had but one job, which was to feed to Obama the 35 word Presidential oath that presumably both of them had privately rehearsed many times in preparation for the big moment. And he messed it up. Clearly it threw Obama off, and has resulted in the TV networks having to do some hasty editing when replaying the moment - CNN skip over the embarrasing bit, but the moment when America's first African American president took the oath of office is now forever confined to history as an event of great political and cultural significance poorly executed.
The Chief Justice was of course a Bush nominee, and the first ever Chief Justice delivering the oath of office to a President who previously voted against his appointment. One wonders whether this a last final Bushism, delivered by proxy?
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