Nerd!

[aerynn]

During Obama's inspiring inaugural speech, when he opened by saying that he was the 44th American to be sworn in to the office of President I got really distracted, because although he is the 44th president, Grover Cleveland is counted twice, because his terms were not consecutive. There have only been 43 presidents, not 44. Did no one fact check

Comments

[die_sterne]

I was thinking the same thing about Cleveland.

[aerynn]

I would think there would be enough history and politics people to proof his speech that someone would have thought about Cleveland and fixed that part. Hmmm.

[die_sterne]

Probably it just sounds better this way. I assumed that was the reason behind the choice.

[pwylltwiceborn]

I saw it too.

[halfie]

It could've been intentional. He's the 44th President, so a lot of people who don't know history like you do (e.g., me) might have said "wait, did he just screw up?" when he referred to himself as the 43rd American to be sworn in as President.

[aerynn]

Yeah, I thought about that, but it seems like he could have phrased it differently.

[halfie]

So either it was an error or they couldn't think of a better way to phrase it? That's a bit strange either way.

[aerynn]

Especially because Barak is a lawyer. I mean, you would think he would be someone who wants to use language precisely and accurately.