WASHINGTON - It was merely a formality and it\u2019s probably a few phrases that both Barack Obama and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts have practiced several times, but the leader of the Supreme Court may have been just a tad nervous when he got one word of the presidential oath of office a little out of order.

Obama smiled slightly when he realized that Roberts, a fellow Harvard Law School graduate, misplaced the word \u201cfaithfully\u201d during the oath. but the new president joined in the fun and repeated it the way Roberts initially administered it.\ue000 (Lest we forget, in the Senate Obama voted against confirming Roberts to the high court.\ue000Last week Obama met with him and the other Supreme Court justices during a courtesy call.)

Here is how the oath is supposed to be administered: \u201cI do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.\u201d

ROBERTS:\ue000 I, Barack Hussein Obama\u2026
OBAMA:\ue000 I, Barack\u2026
ROBERTS:\ue000 \u2026 do solemnly swear\u2026

ROBERTS:\ue000 \u2026 that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully\u2026

ROBERTS:\ue000 \u2026 preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

OBAMA:\ue000 \u2026 preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

For any conspiracy theorists worried Obama isn\u2019t president\ue000 because the oath was a little off, the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that the new president assumes office\ue000 at noon on Jan. 20.

Critics of outgoing President George W. Bush turned a stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House into a\ue000 rowdy street theater on the eve of his handover of power to Barack Obama.

An activist coalition calling itself ShoeBush.org piled a motley collection of dozens of old shoes, including tan combat boots said to have been worn by U.S. troops in Iraq and children\u2019s bright yellow flip-flops, at what amounted to Bush\u2019s doorstep.

\u201cWe wanted to shoo and boo Bush on his last day in office,\u201d said Ann Wilcox of Washington D.C., who marched with the group of about 500 peace activists.

The footwear was tossed between Inaugural parade reviewing stands under watchful eyes of uniformed Secret Service officers. It was a reminder of an Iraqi journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi, who hurled his two shoes at Bush during a news conference\ue000marking the outgoing president\u2019s farewell visit to Iraq.

A hooded, black-clad man posing as the Grim Reaper stood nearby with a sign saying \u201cDeath thanks Bush and Cheney.\u201d The reaper, in an interview, added: \u201cThey\u2019ve been very good for business.\u201d A giant Bush bobblehead\ue000in prisoner\u2019s stripes paraded\ue000nearby,\ue000his hands in chains as if being led away under arrest.

Others handed out black and white postcard-sized signs urging \u201cArrest Bush\u201d to the hundreds of onlookers, many who had come from afar to celebrate Obama\u2019s swearing-in at the other end of

\u201cYou voted for change now use your voice to demand justice,\u201d the group\u2019s handout urged. \u201cTell the new U.S. attorney general to appoint an independent special prosecutor to investigate the crimes of the Bush administration.\u201d

Elsewhere on the street, about two dozens dancers from a group called DanceMetroDC staged an improvised dance fest. One of the dancers, pivoting to the four points of the compass, intoned \u201cChange,\ue000 Change,\ue000 Change,\ue000 Change\u201d as fellow dancers gyrated in turn.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar (Bush bobblehead at Inaugural\ue000protest, Jan. 19)Click here for more Reuters\ue000political

Judging \u201cThe
Speech\u201d \u2014 what
did you think?

Barack Obama became the first black president of the United States on Tuesday. In his much-anticipated inaugural speech, he said the \u201ceconomy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.\u201d

But the new president also said the United States remained \u201cthe most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth,\u201d and that \u201cwe must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.\u201d

What did you think of the speech? Did it meet the hype? Were you moved, or dismayed?

WASHINGTON - They came to cheer a new president. Some came to jeer the old one as well.

As a helicopter carried George W. Bush away from the U.S. capital where he has served as president for the past eight years, those in the crowd sang the taunting sports anthem, \u201cNa na na na, hey hey, goodbye.\u201d

The 43rd president certainly didn\u2019t hear them. But he might have seen the \u201cArrest Bush\u201d signs waved by some spectators as he rode in the presidential limousine toward the Capitol with his successor Barack Obama.

He also might have heard the chants of \u201cNo more Bush\u201d shortly before the swearing-in ceremony began.

\u201cPeople have been coming up to me all day saying, \u2018Nice sign, let me take a picture,\u2019\u201d said Washington prison guard Jewell Lee, 44, referring to her styrofoam sign that said simply: \u201cGET OUT.\u201d

\u201cWe are the Deciders,\u201d read one hand- lettered sign, in a jab at the man who famously styled himself\u201cThe Decider.\u201d

A couple miles north of the inaugural festivities, a painted bedsheet hung out the window of a house in Washington\u2019s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood read \u201cMission Accomplished,\u201d echoing a banner hung behind Bush at a rally shortly after the invasion of Iraq.

Among the hundreds of thousands jamming the Washington mall, Obama hats, buttons and shirts were common. Many said they had traveled long distances

\u201cI don\u2019t care what color he is,\u201d said Garrell Winstead, a 67-year-old real estate investor from Cincinnati, Ohio.\ue000 \u201cIf the economy doesn\u201dt improve and if he doesn\u2019t create enough jobs, patience will evaporate.\u201d

(Writing by Andy Sullivan; reporting by Diane Bartz, Mason, Randall Mikkelsen, Paul Rucker, Andrea Shalal-esa, Jim Wolf, Deborah Zabarenko and Patrick Rucker)

Photo credit: REUTERS/Mike Segar (A helicopter carrying former President George W. Bush leaves the U.S. Capitol following the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Jan. 20)

WASHINGTON - Rev. Joseph Lowery was back on stage with a president, but on Tuesday the civil-rights pioneer used his wry rhymes to welcome the U.S. leader, not skewer him as he did three years ago.

Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King Jr., delivered the benediction at Barack Obama\u2019s inauguration as first black U.S. president.

Lowery prayed for healing from a era of \u201cgreed and corruption,\u201d and asked, in verse, for divine help toward a new beginning of racial harmony:

\u201cWe ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right,\u201d Lowery said to laughter from the vast audience.

In 2006, speaking before then-president George W. Bush and three former presidents at the funeral of King\u2019s widow, Coretta Scott King, Lowery delivered a stern rebuke to Bush\u2019s conduct of the Iraq war and domestic policy.

\u201cWe know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew, and we know, that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty

Critics charged that the remarks were out of place at a funeral. Lowery defended them as relevant to Mrs. King\u2019s life.

Also speaking at the inauguration was evangelical pastor Rick Warren, who said in his invocation that \u201cDr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in Heaven\u201d over Obama\u2019s historic presidency.

Gay-rights supporters had criticized Obama for awarding the inaugural showcase to Warren, an influential supporter of a successful ballot measure to ban gay marriage in California.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jason Reed (Lowery speaks at Obama inauguration, Jan. 20)

By Michael Kraskin (Political
Machine - Politics Blog, Opinion and
Analysis - AOL News)

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Facebook becomes
posterboard for inaugural
festivities

WASHINGTON - For those not among the throngs in the U.S. capital for the inaugural festivities for Barack Obama, many have turned to Facebook to describe how they were watching the ceremonies or their state of excitement about the new president.

And yes, it even became a spot for soon- to-be former aides to outgoing President George W. Bush to describe their future after their tenure at the White House.

One Bush staffer described being \u201cemployed for only 1hr and 28 more minutes\u201d while another told his friends he was on his way to Andrews Air Force Base to attend a closed-door departure ceremony before Bush flies back to Texas on the 747 airplane used as Air Force One(it\u2019s only called that when the current president is aboard).

Another Republican offered his appreciation for the outgoing Bush team, saying\ue000\u201dTHANK YOU President Bush and Vice President Cheney for your service to our nation.\u201d

presidency.\ue000 As Mercedes Grandin from Portland, Maine described it, \u201cbring on our new President!!\u201d\ue000 Heather\ue000Morrow, from Overland Park, Kansas,\ue000said on Facebook\ue000she \u201ccannot tear herself away from the television. this is amazing!\u201d

Others griped about stalled subway or buses to the National Mall or the U.S. Capitol while some described the ease with which they cleared the numerous security checkpoints.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jason Reed (the US Capitol before sunrise hours before the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States)

McCain says wishes he
were taking oath, promises
Obama support

WASHINGTON - Former Republican White House candidate John McCain said on Monday he wished he were taking the presidential oath of office but pledged his support to former rival Barack Obama instead.

McCain, speaking at a dinner in his honor on the eve of Obama\u2019s swearing-in, reflected on his own career of military and public service when mentioning Tuesday\u2019s inauguration.

\u201cI would have preferred to have sworn again tomorrow the oath I first took more than 50 years ago,\u201d he said.

\u201cBut it would be an act of stunning ingratitude were I to resent the decision of the American people or dismiss the privilege I still possess: the privilege of serving in some capacity the country that

McCain wished the president-elect well even as he said the two may continue to joust in the future.

\u201cWe will disagree now and again, but not always and not for personal reasons, and not, I assure you, over the purpose we share: the progress of the nation we love,\u201d he said.

The Arizona senator and Obama, a former senator from Illinois, clashed repeatedly on the 2008 campaign trail over policy in often bitter exchanges. McCain gave a gracious concession speech, however, after his loss on Nov. 4 and met with Obama in Chicago after the election.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama speaks beside U.S. Sen. John McCain during the Bipartisan dinner honoring McCain in Washington on Jan. 19, 2009.

WASHINGTON - Moments after Barack Obama took the oath of office as the 44th U.S. president, the Web site for the White House, www.whitehouse.gov, underwent a dramatic metamorphosis, offering a new blog for online readers.

It will serve as a place for the most technology-savvy president in U.S. history and his new administration \u201cto connect with the rest of the nation and the world,\u201d Macon Phillips, director of new media for

The site features a web-log or blog, an online \u201cbriefing room\u201d and allows visitors to sign up for e-mail updates on major announcements and decisions, and to send in their own ideas.

As his first official act, Obama proclaimed Jan. 20, 2009 as a \u201cNational Day of Renewal and Reconciliation,\u201d calling on Americans to serve one another and come together to carry forward American democracy.

Phillips said Obama also remained committed to his campaign pledge to make \u201chis administration the most open and

as all non-emergency legislation, giving the public five days to comment before they are signed by the new president, Phillips said.

Citing Obama\u2019s early work as a community organizer in Chicago, Phillips said, \u201cCitizen participation will be a priority for the Administration, and the Internet will play an important role in that.\u201d

Take a snapshot of
history during
Obama inauguration

WASHINGTON - Where were you when Barack Obama made history being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States?

That\u2019s what the\ue000Presidential Inaugural Committee wants to know.\ue000 It\ue000is asking people to take a\ue000photo of what they are doing at noon on January 20, 2009, when Obama takes the oath of office and becomes the first African American to serve in the nation\u2019s highest office.

\u201cPeople all across the country will be gathered together to watch history. We want to see how you will be joining in the celebration of change,\u201d the inaugural committee said in an e-mail.\ue000 \u201cShare your picture of history.\u201d

The committee said it will be posting pictures on its website and may even use some in the official Inaugural book.

Obama has successfully used the Internet as a major campaign tool to raise money, reach out to voters and mobilize supporters.

Photo credit: Reuters/Stephen Hird (Visitors to Madame Tussauds pose next to the wax figure of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, in London January 20, 2009)