I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear …
I, George Walker Bush …
I, William Jefferson Clinton …
I, George Herbert Walker Bush …
I, Ronald Reagan …
I, Jimmy Carter …
I, Gerald R. Ford …
I, Richard Nixon …
I, John Fitzgerald Kennedy …
I, Dwight D. Eisenhower …
I, Harry S. Truman …
I, Franklin Delano Roosevelt …
Which of these is not like the others?
Although no one ever referred to Bill Clinton as “William,” he took the oath of office under his given name. Yes, Ronald Wilson Reagan and Richard Milhous Nixon omitted their middle names from the oath. And Dwight David Eisenhower and Gerald Rudolph Ford used only their middle initials.
But James Earl Carter, Jr., took the oath of the Presidency under a casual nickname.
That right there should have been a clue.
I have avoided the hoopla today like the plague. I'll probably catch up over the next few weeks, once I no longer feel like I'm being bludgeoned with it. It was an historic occasion. Too bad the media had to oversaturate it to the point of nausea even well before the fact.
I wish President Obama all the best. It's in my interest, the interest of my country and the interest of the entire Western world that he succeed.
