At noon today, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the nation's 44th president. He will be sworn in by the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts.
On Sept. 29, 2005, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Roberts by a 78-22 tally. One of the 22 "no" votes was cast by Obama.
By most accounts, the relationship between Roberts and Obama is cordial; the chief justice recently had the president-elect over to visit the Supreme Court.
One not-so-cordial relationship between chief justice and the man he was to administer the oath of office involved Earl Warren and Richard Nixon. The poor relationship between Warren and Nixon, two California Republicans, went back to at least 1952, when Warren, then governor, was seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Rather than back Warren, his state's favorite son, Nixon — then a recently elected senator — backed Dwight Eisenhower for the nomination. Ike rewarded Nixon with the vice presidency. Warren never forgave Nixon. And Nixon, when he ran for president in 1968, spent much of the campaign criticizing the "Warren court" and what he called its liberal decisions.
And there they were, on Jan. 20, 1969, Earl Warren administering the oath to Richard Nixon, president of the United States. Only in America.
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