You’ve probably seen this description of the second swearing-in, but I’ve only just it read. It was sent from the White House while I was trying to sleep with hot water pipes rumbling all night long. Apparently taking the oath twice has been done before: Chester Arthur in 1881; Calvin Coolidge in 1923.

(This time it was done without the Bible.)

“At 7.35 pm, Roberts administred the oath of office again to Obama in the map
room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was
fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a
“an abundance of caution.”
“We decided it was so much fun…” Obama joked while sitting on a couch.
Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool as roberts donnedhis black robe.
“Are you ready to take the oath?” Roberts asked.
“I am, and we’re going to do it very slowly,” Obama replied.
Oath took 25 seconds.
After a flawless recitation, roberts smiled and said, “congratulations,
again.”
Obama said, “thank you, sir.”
Smattering of applause.
“All right.” Obama said. “The bad news for the (press) pool is there’s 12 more
balls.”