President Obama should follow Kyrsten Sinema's example: Swear on the Constitution, not the Bible

On January 20th, President Obama will be sworn in to his second term in office on a stack of Bibles -- using Michelle's family Bible, the Bible Abraham Lincoln used in his first inaugural, and Martin Luther King's Bible.

Which, of course, is triply ridiculous.

As Lawrence O'Donnell so rightly said in his January 10th "Rewrite",

The president, following one of our most absurd traditions in the government that invented the separation of church and state, will put his hand on this book filled with things he does not believe, filled with things that no one in the United States of America believes, and with his hand on this book he will recite the oath of office. And his hand on this book is actually supposed to make you believe that he really believes what he is saying in the oath of office even though the book is filled with things that you and he do not believe.

Wouldn't it be better for the president to be sworn with his hand on the same document that he swears to preserve, protect, and defend in his inaugural oath -- the U.S. Constitution?

That's what the newly-elected Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) did when she took her oath of office.



President Obama should go and do likewise.