US is really a religious nation, and most of Chinese had no religious belief(I don’t think the Confucian is a real religion, though most of us affected by the old culture more or less). We could not see the importance of pastor (Though I know some one, but I don’t think he could affect me much ), religion occupied little part of our daily lives.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/roberts-and-obama-reunite-for-inaugural-do-over.php

You may not be aware of the controversy about Rick Warren (the preacher who delivered the invocation, before Obama spoke). Some background:

Rick Warren is the pastor of a very large church in California (see his Wikipedia Page, though note that it does not reflect much of this controversy right now, because it is locked from editing). That church was actually one of the first venues in which both Obama and McCain appeared during the campaign, for back-to-back interviews.

Rick Warren is also opposed to lesbian and gay marriage; if I recall correctly, he’s also opposed to civil unions for them, and has made some disparaging comments about homosexuals. Barack Obama generally supports lesbian and gay rights, such as non-discrimination laws and civil unions (though he does not support gay marriage — we all wonder if this is because he really doesn’t support it, or if he just thinks he couldn’t get elected if he came out in favor of it). Anyway, many people were disappointed when Obama selected Rick Warren to speak at the inauguration.

(Ayse et al: Rock Sun is in China and probably isn’t following the nuances of U.S. domestic politics as closely as… well, I was going to say as closely as the average American, but then I realized he’s probably following things much more closely than the average American. Let’s just say he’s probably not following it as closely as you are .)

-Karl

Rock Sun, thanks for the link. And bnonews.com looks kind of interesting, too…

http://www.bnonews.com/elections/?id=348

Colour me totally unsurprised that Fox News is in the forefront of asserting that if the oath is flubbed, it’s not valid (for which there is no legal precedent). And even if it weren’t, it’s not as if Roberts can’t drive over to the White House tonight and re-administer it if the law required it.

Indeed — but I think (haven’t found a transcript yet) that Warren did specify “peaceful” .

According to Talking Points Memo, the conspiracy theorists have already started, sort of…

Nice catch!

And yeah, can’t believe that Roberts blew that one. I wonder how often that happens.

Now wait for the conspiracy theorists to say that if the oath is flubbed, Obama isn’t really president.