It bears repeating, I guess.

Besides all of the obvious historical ramifications of Obama-mania, the underlying benefit is that we no longer have a president who makes us want to deny that we know who he is.

Like the drunk uncle or that cousin who is constantly in jail, we don't have to stutter and stammer when someone asks about him. Bush wasn't our president unless we had to answer a question on a civics exam.

Now (pinch me) we have a guy who we can actually look up to and respect. I'm guessing that the heads at the White House have been on a media-induced swivel, which may have prompted this event:

WASHINGTON – After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House — a rare do-over. The surprise moment came in response to Tuesday's much-noticed stumble, when Roberts got the words of the oath a little off, which prompted Obama to do so, too.
Don't worry, the White House says: Obama has still been president since noon on Inauguration Day. Nevertheless, Obama and Roberts went through the drill again out of what White House counsel Greg Craig called "an abundance of caution."

That's right, don't worry. Like we were worried. Obama and Roberts stumbled over the oath, as though they hadn't rehearsed it. That was right after the news commentators told us that he took office at noon regardless of whether or not he had taken the oath. So, why bother repeating it? Because that's all he needs - some wacko with a forum (or a Fox News show) would dig up some ridiculous codicil that says if he didn't recite the oath like the Constitution says, he isn't really the president. I won't speculate, but his name sounds like Rill O'Beilly.

It happened when Obama interrupted Roberts midway through the opening line, in which the president repeats his name and solemnly swears.
Next in the oath is the phrase " ... that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States." But Roberts rearranged the order of the words, not saying "faithfully" until after "president of the United States."
That appeared to throw Obama off. He stopped abruptly at the word "execute."
Recognizing something was off, Roberts then repeated the phrase, putting "faithfully" in the right place but without repeating "execute."
But Obama then repeated Roberts' original, incorrect version: "... the office of president of the United States faithfully."
Craig, the White House lawyer, said in a statement Wednesday evening: "We believe the oath of office was administered effectively and that the president was sworn in appropriately yesterday. Yet the oath appears in the Constitution itself. And out of the abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the oath a second time."

Something tells me we're in for a lot of this type of thing. There will be people who will pick apart everything he does from now until 2016. What's interesting is that the last guy was a complete dimwit and it didn't seem to matter.

It will be eight years of "an abundance of caution." Meanwhile, there's a lot of work to do and he's already wasted time with this nonsense. It wouldn't be the first time a good person got distracted because somebody didn't want him doing what he set out to do.

It's tough to go forward if you're always watching your back.