Last night at 7:35, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administered the oath of office to President Barack Obama a second time in the Map Room of the White House. Roberts began by asking Obama whether he was ready. “I am, and we’re going to do it very slowly,” Obama replied.
The do-over was to dispel any confusion after Tuesday’s oath and erase any doubt that Obama is legally president, although Obama became president at noon Tuesday without taking the oath as stated in the Constitution.
KENNEDY DROPS SENATE BID
Caroline Kennedy has dropped her bid for the Senate seat vacated by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Kennedy, widely considered the front-runner to replace the former first lady, cited personal reasons and said she told NY Gov. David Paterson that she was no longer interested in the job.
According to her one-line statement: “I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate.”
PRESIDENT HALTS GUANTANAMO CASES
Pres. Barack Obama will issue three executive orders today, with one demanding the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay be closed within a year, according to a senior administration official.
The other executive orders involve banning torture formally and reviewing detention policies, procedures and individual cases.
Guantanamo Bay became a big component of criticism for the Bush administration, whose critics believed had used torture on terror detainees. President George W. Bush and other senior officials, however, repeatedly denied that the U.S. government had used torture to extract intelligence from terror suspects. Obama’s move will now set off a fierce legal struggle over where the prison’s detainees will go next.
@8. Actually the order President Obama signed was not only to close Guantanamo Bay, but also the secret CIA prisons worldwide. I think it’s very relevant to what Obama has campaigned and talked about. It’s relevant to introducing more ethical practices and becoming more consistent in what America says its values are. It’s relevant to the belief that people have rights due to them…..people, not just US citizens. These prisoners that are being held by the US government need to be tried or let go.
@46. And, they are prisoners–terrorist suspects—not terrorists. They have not been tried or convicted as terrorists. We haven’t really heard any arguments and seen any evidence any of them are terrorists. We don’t know which of the prisoners have perfomed terrorist actions or have been a terrorist threat. There has been nothing decided or said about where they will be transferred to, but if they are transferred to prisons inside the US, then that’s where they will be–inside the prison, not out “on our land to terrorize again”.
At this point, all I’m gonna do is sit back and shake my head.
@ Pete
Agreed. I believe that Obama keeps stressing “it’ll take time to fix our economy,” “it’s gonna take years to repair the damages of the Bush Administration,” to secure his 2012 re-election. LOL
i dunno…i like torturing terrorists
can some1 plz give me the back story on the situation with Guantanamo!
4get it i just read it lol
I am so proud of OUR PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA I WILL SAY THIS AGAIN THANK YOU JESUS FOR DR KING’S DREAM AND RUSHIE LIMBIE GET OVER IT YOUR PRESIDENT IS BLACK AND OTHERS HATERSSSSSSSSS FALL BACK!!!!!
President Obama is the one that put himself in such a Messiah position. The truth is that I don’t care how much you try to ‘talk” to these terriorist they hated the United States. The Bush administration messed up with Katrina, but there have not been another major attack on United States soil. President Obama is living in fairy land thinking that his beautiful speeches and his million dollar smile is going to keep them people from attacking us. I am black and listen to Rush Limbaugh and everything that man has said up to the election has been true of President Obama. I don’t really care about the historical element of the administration bcause his socialistic policies is going to bring this country down. You all need to stop been so in love with the image and study his policies. Bush was not the best President, but Obama could be far worst, the only difference is that most of the media is so in love with him they aren’t going to tell you the negative stuff.
Sounds like you listen to too much Rush. I’m wondering why Rush didn’t run for President since he has the answers. I’m also wondering who the terrorists are that you are referring to, and who exactly is trying to “talk” to them. A lot of individuals and organizations hate the US and have hated the US for a long time, but most of them do not participate in terrorist activities. And, I haven’t heard about any of the presidents having any talks with any terrorists.
Ya know, the US is on the top of the list of advanced economies, but also on that list are Canada, Japan, and most of Europe, all of which have a universal healthcare system. I don’t think a few “socialistic” policies are going to bring down the country, (as if we haven’t already been brought down a few notches in the past few years).
Ultimately, the US voting population elected President Obama into office. Obviously a lot of them felt like what he was proposing was better than what McCain was proposing. I’m sure that those that did vote for President Obama ranged from one extreme to the other in terms of rational thinking when considering who to vote for. But I can’t be convinced that the majority voted him in on the basis of his smile and speech style, nor can I be convinced that the media is trying to hide “the negative stuff.” Even if they were, we live in 2009 for heaven’s sake. Everyone in this country has a blog, a myspace page, a cell phone, a Blackberry, a computer, etc. The media doesn’t control all of that; all those that wanted to present “the negative stuff” had plenty of opportunity and utilized it. Rush Limbaugh is an example of that.
I LOVE YOU BARACK.
@69 Thanks so much for that,Everything was done in GOD’S TIIMING I Voted for President Obama not for style or speech I voted for him because I believe in him and I believe that he deserve a chance .. President Obama I will pray that God give you and the leaders head of protection and guidance when making decisons
@greta i know girl.plus we need a change bigtime.
@ANT$
If you like torturing terrorists, then most of your American troops should be tortured.
Cnn correspondents said that by vertue of the 20th Amendment and constitution, whether Obama took the oath or not, effective noon jan 20th, he became President! They said the oath is just for tradition and that he doesn’t need to say the path in order to become President. Them sorry nay sayers always got some mess to wine about.
That’s ok, President Obama is gonna get things done!
oops, Oath
i heard that the redo is not valid becuase he didn’t put his hand on the bible so they will have to re-do a third time?? This is ridiculous, all to appease the angry repubs. Sorry azz loosers!! Shyt how do that think we felt when Bush had not one but TWO terms and look at the state of this country that he’s handed off to Obama to fix. It’s really sad!!