Too Bad This Piece Didn't Run 4 or 8 Years Ago

Morning Edition on NPR had an excellent piece on the origins of the Presidential Oath of Office. Did you know it is located in the Constitution and is the only thing in quotes? I didn't! NPR's Steve Inskeep interviewed Marvin Pinkert, executive director of the National Archives Experience. Here are some things I learned this morning:

George Washington and the Founding Fathers made changes to the Oath of Office which included swearing to the Constitution. "That the president is treated as a citizen under the Constitution rather than as the supreme authority of the land says something special about the nature of the U.S. government and the foresight of the founding fathers, Pinkert says."

Here's another: "Among those changes," Pinkert says, "is to cut out the word 'judgment' … and replace it with the word 'abilities,'" which was later shortened to "ability."

I'm hoping President-Elect Obama has studied and taken these words to heart. President Bush's actions while in office (FISA courts, allegations of torture and abuse, using his judgment instead of his abilities), in my opinion, don't reflect the principles the Founding Fathers wanted in a President who took the Oath of Office.