Barack Obama is now the President of the United States. No news there. I have no interest in discussing any errors that were or were not made in the oath of office yesterday. I don’t think that is very interesting. What I do find interesting is that in the first few lines of his inaugural address, he made a mistake. That mistake is very common, but it is an error, nonetheless. “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.” That is simply incorrect. Obama’s is the forty-fourth presidency, but he is not the forty-fourth man to be President (after having taking “the presidential oath”).
Forty-three men have served as the President of the United States. Grover Cleveland was elected President in 1884, and again, in 1892. This makes him both the twenty-second and the twenty-fourth President. It probably has no bearing on how what kind of president Obama will turn out to be, but it is disconcerting that the President would commit such an error, and only a few minutes into his presidency.
In other counting news, this is my 100th blog post. No, I am not planning on posting a list of 100 things about me. I do, however, hope to write a bit more about my own experiences in Israel (and elsewhere), and not just analyzing/criticizing/etc. Israel-related current affairs.
This was discussed in a washington post chat http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....cmoduletmv
The consensus seems to be that it would have confused more people to say 43, but he should have worded it better so it would have been correct and not confusing.