Seattle Bubble

Here was his speech in a nutshell:

OK America. Quit acting like a spoiled kid. Shit is real right now and we gotta get out of this. I'm gonna work hard, but you're not getting rich for free. Get to work you baby.

(1) The 20th Amendment provides that "(t)he terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January...."

(2) Art II., Sec. 1 Cl. 8 provides that "(b)efore he enter on the Execution of his Office, (The President) shall take the following oath...."

(3) President Obama did not take the Oath of Office until about 12:03 pm today, after Vice President Biden took it at about 12:01 p.m. (Yo Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman were still fiddling at noon).

(4) Therefore, there was a brief window (just after noon) when George Bush and Dick Cheney were no longer President and Vice President, but Barack Obama and Joe Biden also were not yet qualified to enter on the Execution of their offices.

(5) The Presidential Succession Act, 3 U.S.C. sec. 19(a)(1), provides: "If, by reason of ... failure to qualify, there is neither a President nor Vice President to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President, then the Speaker of the House of Representatives shall, upon his resignation as Speaker and as Representative in Congress, act as President." Section 19(b) states that the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall act as President (under the same terms and conditions) if the Speaker of the House fails to qualify.

(6) Neither Nancy Pelosi nor Robert Byrd actually resigned their seats in the Congress. Thus, neither of them qualified to become Acting President under the Presidential Succession Act. Plus, interbranch appointments might be unconstitutional anyhow. See Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar, Is the Presidential Succession Law Constitutional?, 48 Stan. L. Rev. 113 (1995); but see Howard Wasserman, Structural Principles and Presidential Succession, 90 Ky. L.J. 345 (2002).

(7) Section 19(d)(1) of the Presidential Succession Act provides: "If, by reason of ... failure to qualify, there is no President pro tempore to act as President under subsection (b) of this section, then the officer of the United States who is highest on the following list, and who is not under disability to discharge the powers and duties of the office of President shall act as President: Secretary of State ...."

(8) Notably, Section 19(d)(1) does not condition the Secretary of State's assumption of the powers and duties of the office of President on resignation of her current office, nor does elevation of the Secretary of State raise any constitutional issue of interbranch appointment.

(9) The term of office of the Secretary of State does not automatically terminate at noon on the 20th day of January.

(10) On January 20, 2009, Condoleeza Rice was (and is) still the Secretary of State.

(11) Accordingly, from 12:00 noon until 12:01 p.m. (when Vice President Biden took the oath of office and became Vice President), Condoleeza Rice was momentarily the Acting President of the United States, our first African-American President.

Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Not just the websites, but also the 40 minute long youtube videos that ramble on and on about God knows what.

We need RobRoy to parse the conspiracy theories about Roberts and Obama flubbing the order of the oath of office, and as a result, Obama not actually being president.

Chief Justice John Roberts was ushered into the Map Room of the White House on Wednesday night to re-administer the oath of office to President Obama because the original oath Tuesday had a word out of sequence.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the move was made out of "an abundance of caution" in consultation with White House Counsel Greg Craig. Obama's second swearing in, devoid of pomp, took place at 7:35 p.m. in the presence of a few aides and a news pool. The chief justice was wearing a court robe. "Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts said. "I am," Obama said, "and we're going to do it very slowly."