Associated Press reports:

Chief Justice John Roberts has administered the presidential oath of office to Barack Obama for a second time just to be on the safe side.

The unusual step came after Roberts flubbed the oath a bit on Tuesday, causing Obama to repeat the wording differently than as prescribed in the Constitution.

In 2002, I happened to be in Washington on November 13 and watched the oral arguments in the Megan's Law cases. In the Ex Post Facto case, Smith v. Doe, 538 U. S. 84 (2003), Alaska Attorney General Bruce Botelho had passed on arguing the case himself and hired one of the Supreme Court Bar's premiere advocates, John Roberts. It was one of the smoothest, best-prepared arguments I have ever seen. Nearly everyone who saw Roberts argue a case had a similar impression.

So the blogs have been buzzing about how such a famously skilled and invariably prepared advocate could flub such a simple task. My theory is Casey At the Bat Syndrome. Perhaps it was so simple he got overconfident, "misunderestimated" (to use a Bushism) the anxiety-inducing effect of the whole world watching, and didn't think he needed to rehearse.