Obama Sworn In ... Again!

Hope, change and a do-over.

As we called this morning.

It just broke on the news and we'll get a link as soon as we can, but this is certainly a first.

If this helps avoid legal challenges like the birth certificate nonsense, then I'm all for it. If you think about it though, would this ever get to the Supremem Court where it would be heard by the guy who flubbed the line? I doubt it.

OK, we have a link.

Chief Justice John Roberts administered the presidential oath of office to Barack Obama for a second time Wednesday just to be on the safe side.

The unusual step came after Roberts flubbed the 35-word constitutionally prescribed oath a bit on Tuesday, causing Obama to repeat the wording differently than as prescribed in the Constitution.

White House counsel Greg Craig said Obama took the oath from Roberts again out of an "abundance of caution."

'He Should Probably Go Ahead and Take the Oath Again'

If this helps avoid legal challenges like the birth certificate nonsense, then I'm all for it. If you think about it though, would this ever get to the Supremem Court where it would be heard by the guy who flubbed the line? I doubt it.

The only reason not to retake the oath would be to prevent further embarrassment of the chief justice, he said. "It would seem appropriate for the president of the United States to take the oath specified in the Constitution," he said. "It's the same oath all 43 of his predecessors took. He ought to take it."

Charles Cooper, head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel under President Ronald Reagan, said that the oath is mandatory, that an incorrect recitation should be fixed and that he would be surprised if the oath hadn't already been re-administered.

Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University, was hosting an inauguration party at his home in McLean, Va., Tuesday and did a mock swearing-in of 35 children. When Roberts erred, one child shouted: "That's not right!"

"He should probably go ahead and take the oath again," Turley said. "If he doesn't, there are going to be people who for the next four years are going to argue that he didn't meet the constitutional standard. I don't think it's necessary, and it's not a constitutional crisis. This is the chief justice's version of a wardrobe malfunction."

Via LGF links.

Dark Day for Democrats

Expect hissyfits across the fruited plain today. Whenever it's good news for America, it's bad news for the left.

Roberts to leave hospital Tuesday

WASHINGTON - Chief Justice John Roberts was expected to be released from a hospital in Maine Tuesday, a day after suffering a seizure, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said.

Roberts, 52, plans to continue his vacation at a summer home in Maine, said spokeswoman Kathy Arberg. Doctors found no cause for concern after evaluating Roberts, she said. President Bush's chief spokesman, Tony Snow, reported earlier that Roberts told Bush in a phone call that he was doing fine.

The nutroots may be jumping from rooftops.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Consumer Confidence Hits 6-Year High

NEW YORK (AP) -- Consumer confidence hit a six-year high in July, a widely watched gauge of sentiment showed on Tuesday, as Americans shrugged off falling home prices to focus on a healthy jobs market, instead.

The New York-based Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index, rebounded to 112.6, its highest level since August 2001 when it recorded a 114.0 reading. That compared to a revised 105.3 in June. The July 24 cutoff for the preliminary survey of 5,000 U.S. households was before last week's stock market tumble, however.

Experts everywhere are confounded.

Stocks surge after GM earnings

NEW YORK - Stocks surged Tuesday, as strong earnings from General Motors Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. helped Wall Street extend its recovery from last week's plunge.

Investors were also eager to buy back into the stock market after economic snapshots suggested tame inflation and rising consumer confidence.

Go**amn f**cking capitalist pigs!

Now for something to really drive them insane:

Lieberman escalates attack on Iraq critics

Ever since Connecticut Democrats refused to back him for a fourth term in Congress, Joe Lieberman has been burnishing his independent credentials in the narrowly divided Senate while becoming increasingly critical of the Democratic Party on the war in Iraq.

Lieberman, the Democrats' 2000 vice presidential nominee, insists he is not actively considering joining the Republican Party. But he is keeping that possibility wide open as his disenchantment grows with Democratic leaders. The main sticking points are their attempts to end the war in Iraq and their hesitation to take a harder line against Iran.

"I think either [Democrats] are, in my opinion, respectfully, naive in thinking we can somehow defeat this enemy with talk, or they're simply hesitant to use American power, including military power," Lieberman said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hill.

"There is a very strong group within the party that I think doesn?t take the threat of Islamist terrorism seriously enough."

Ned Lament was unavailable for comment.

Not even noon on the east coast. What other bad news can the Democrats expect today?

UPDATE: The hits keep on coming:

U.S. forces welcome least deadly month of Iraq push

BAGHDAD, July 31 - The build-up of extra troops in Baghdad may be bearing fruit, U.S. commanders said on Tuesday, as they welcomed news that July was the least deadly month for their forces in Iraq since last November.

Now this:
News Corp. Appears to Have Enough Votes to Clinch Deal

News Corp. is poised to win control of Dow Jones & Co., including its flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal, after a key Bancroft trust changed its mind and decided to accept News Corp.'s $60-a-share offer for the newspaper publisher.

Left with scraps, the bedwetting left is reduced to kvelling over this, which they're too stupid to realize is meaningless.