Obama Retakes Oath, Really Is President Now

Barack Obama wisely and quickly retook the presidential oath of office Wednesday night from Chief Justice John Roberts.

Why wisely?

Remember, Obama still can't convince some people he's not a Muslim. Or that he's a natural-born citizen.

He certainly didn't want to start his first term in office with any cloud hanging over the legitimacy of whether he really was, technically, the president of the United States.

Roberts had slightly scrambled some words while administering the oath at Tuesday's inauguration. As a result, Obama did not say the oath, word for word, as it's laid out in the U.S. Constitution.



By Wednesday afternoon, legitimate constitutional scholars were saying Obama ought to retake the oath, just to make sure he was really president.

It was the proper move by Obama.

Spending a few minutes to retake the oath of office Wednesday will avoid four years of diverting questions about this issue.

By Yael T. Abouhalkah, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist