Swearing in or swearing at

It was hard for me, listening to one of the most crucial interchanges of the last eight years of this century-- the swearing in of Barack Obama,
not to think that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was trying to mess up Barack Obama, by interrupting him, and then feeding him phrases that were difficult to repeat back under stress.

Actually, I heard on NPR today, that the US Constitution specifies the exact words that need to be said by the president. Barack had them memorized; the Chief Justice tried to recite them from memory and messed up.

Obama paused to give the justice an opportunity to correct his mistake.


Somehow it seemed a metaphor for the notion of a competent, fair Supreme Court-- one that was neither.