President Takes Oath, Becomes Senator

On the Secretary of State’s election site, which includes an online version of the voter pamphlet leading up to the Aug. 19 Primary, is included a PDF file entitled, How is the United States President Elected?

You grammar cops never mind for a moment that “is” should be capitalized. There are bigger violations here. Thanks to Jeff Duffy of Port Orchard, this egregious error has been called to my attention.

The page is a nice handy explanation that, no, dummy, you already had a chance to vote for president and being the stinking, self-righteous, so-called journalist you gave up that right and sat it out. Well, that’s what it would say if it were directed at me, to which I would respond that I do not often stink.

The bigger problem appears at the right. The eagle is lovely, but appears angry. And well he or she should be. The oath above said eagle is indeed an oath, but it’s not presidential, else John McCain and Barack Obama might already be presidents. The oath shown is the one members of Congress take after picking out desks at Ikea, but before opening accounts at the Senate or House credit unions.

I didn’t give Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed an opportunity to respond to the goof. Instead I’m going to engage in the activity enjoyed by so many anonymous story commenters — ignorant blame-throwing and random speculation. I say it’s the fault of the secretary’s newest hire, David Ammons. I have all kinds of respect for Ammons, who ruled the Capitol building as an Associated Press reporter starting sometime after the Gutenberg Bible but before Pong. He left this year to work for Reed, making Ammons the most likely suspect.

Here’s where I pulled my conclusion.