Biden was President for like 5 or 6 minutes

[snooper2]

Since he was sworn in before noon- and Chimpy officially stopped being pResident at noon Eastern. Obama wasn't sworn in till 5 or 6 minutes after so for that brief period Biden was President....

So- Obama is #45 ( just kidding :) )

[madmom]

1. Not really, he became president a noon whether sworn in or not.

[liberalpragmatist]

2. Nah - Obama was officially president at 12

The oath is just a formality. There was a blurb on CNN that at 12pm EST, Obama was officially president.

[SunsetDreams]

3. The constitution says Obama was President at noon

regardless of oath being taken or not.

[snooper2]

6. So the folks at CBS had it wrong?

that's what they were saying

[SunsetDreams]

8. absolutely, check out the constitution

[Orangepeel]

13. The CBS newspeople really said that?

I was watching CNN and they even had a little "fact" graphic pop up on the screen at noon that explained.

edited to clarify: the CNN graphic explained that according to the Constitution, Obama became President at noon with our without the oath.

[rucky]

4. He didn't even have time to put his feet up on the desk.

[Gman]

5. I believe Obama was legally president at noon EST

regardless of having taken the oath of office or not. The constitution states that the term begins at noon and does not stipulate having to be sworn in.

[Jennicut]

7. I bet he cherished those 5 minutes...not really

LOL. Yesterday, on Oprah he said he was glad it was Barack that was president and not him.

[whistle]

9. Technically Biden would have been "acting president" as he was

...not officially sworn in again as President. The real story here was that at 12:00:01 pm Bush was no longer POTUS.

[Phx_Dem]

10. No, Bush was President until the moment Obama was sworn in.

Cheney was the one out of a job for 5 minutes. And it was beautiful 5 minutes.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

11. so that means Biden was Bush's VP for 5 mins O.O

Aiieee, Biden has been tainted, cleansing cleansing, we need a purification ritual pronto *runs around in a wild panic* :silly:

[alwysdrunk]

14. Yeah, this is true. The other thing is not

Biden was Bush's VP.

[grantcart]

15. see below - the oath is ceremonial and doesn't legally denote who was President.

[Pryderi]

12. Read the 20th Amendment. Obama was prez @ noon. n/t