MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Obama takes presidential oath of office a second time

Obama takes the oath again but without the Bible and Michelle

Barack Obama retook on Wednesday the US presidential oath of office, after the inauguration blunder that was heard throughout the world. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Mr Obama at the White House in a rare move in which no TV camera crews or news photographers were allowed in.

The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday's much-noticed stumble, when Mr Roberts made a mistake, transposing some of the words of the oath - which prompted Mr Obama to do so too. Under the oath, as set out in the US Constitution, the new incumbent swears to "faithfully execute the office of president of the United States". But as Chief Justice Roberts read out the oath for Mr Obama to repeat, he moved the word "faithfully" to the end of the phrase. Mr Obama, apparently noticing the error, hesitated. Mr Roberts repeated the phrase incorrectly, and Mr Obama followed suit, using the erroneous formula. So Mr Obama and Mr Roberts went through the drill again, out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called "an abundance of caution". This time, the scene was the White House Map Room in front of a small group of reporters. "We decided that because it was so much fun ...," Mr Obama joked to reporters who followed press secretary Robert Gibbs into the room. Mr Roberts then put on his black robe. "Are you ready to take the oath?" he said. "Yes, I am," Mr Obama said. "And we're going to do it very slowly." Mr Roberts then led Mr Obama through the oath without any missteps. The president said he did not have his bible with him, but that the oath was binding anyway. The US constitution is clear about the exact wording of the oath and as a result, some experts have said that a repetition was probably unnecessary, but also could not hurt. This was not a new situation: two other previous US presidents have repeated the oath because of similar issues - Calvin Coolidge and Chester Arthur.