The Kerfuffle Over the Mangled Oath

"Oaf of Office" is the title of a funny column by Steven Pinker in the Jan 22nd NY Times about how the oath of office for President Obama got mangled. An excerpt:

"On Tuesday, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Flubber Hall of Fame when he administered the presidential oath of office apparently without notes. Instead of having Barack Obama "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States," Chief Justice Roberts had him "solemnly swear that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully." When Mr. Obama paused after "execute," the chief justice prompted him to continue with "faithfully the office of president of the United States." (To ensure that the president was properly sworn in, the chief justice re-administered the oath Wednesday evening.)

How could a famous stickler for grammar have bungled that 35-word passage, among the best-known words in the Constitution? Conspiracy theorists and connoisseurs of Freudian slips have surmised that it was unconscious retaliation for Senator Obama's vote against the chief justice's confirmation in 2005. But a simpler explanation is that the wayward adverb in the passage is blowback from Chief Justice Roberts's habit of grammatical niggling."

Pinker then goes on to discuss the opposition of many grammarians to the "split verb", of which "will faithfully execute" is an example.

On the "conspiracy theory" side, there is the Tom Toles cartoon in the Jan. 22nd Washington Post.

I have an even more simple explanation than Pinker's. True, Chief Justice Roberts was not wearing an overcoat, which may have affected his (epileptic*) brain function, as he was reciting the oath from memory. For me, though, the best explanation boils down to one of the following two choices.

a) He was so overcome by the historic moment of the first African-American being sworn in as president, and the gigantic crowd, that he flubbed his lines.

b) He had a casual attitude toward the whole proceeding, due to the lack of "grandeur" of Barack Obama, the interloper who waylaid first Hillary Clinton and then John McCain.

Given that Roberts had no notes, my preference is for b)

PS. Bear in mind. The oath may be "among the best-known words in the Constitution",but this was the first time Chief Justice Roberts had administered it. (Chief Justice Rehnquist administered the oath in 2005.)

* Recall that Roberts had an epileptic seizure, his second, in 2007. See, for example

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20039923/