What will outgoing President Bush be doing during the Obama inauguration?

January 18, 2009 6:28 PM

What will outgoing President Bush be doing during the Obama inauguration?

I basically want to know what role Bush will be playing in the Obama inauguration. As far as I can tell, the outgoing president has some ceremonial functions to perform. What are these exactly?

posted by gregb1007 to law & government (6 comments total)

He sits there, close to the Obamas (watch video of Gore sitting near the Bushes), and as soon as the ceremony is over, will be flown back to Texas. No real ceremonial duties, only to be present -- as he continues to be president until Obama takes the oath.
posted by midatlanticwanderer at 6:37 PM on January 18

Here's a fairly informative article about the activities of the outgoing president on inauguration day.
posted by cloudsandstars at 7:40 PM on January 18

President Obama, will escort former President Bush to a departure ceremony after the national anthem, but before the inaugural parade. There. Thats the answer you were looking for.
posted by hal_c_on at 7:44 PM on January 18

[I won't miss him either, but please cut the shit pronto. This is AskMe, not LolBush.]
posted by cortex at 7:55 PM on January 18 [2 favorites]

he continues to be president until Obama takes the oath.

Well, slightly after that, actually. Bush's term ends at Noon (in accordance with the Twentieth Amendment; Obama is scheduled to take the oath at 11:56 (Inaugural Media Guide; see page 14, and be warned it's a PDF). Obama taking the oath doesn't make him President; it's done in preparation for the fact that he's about to become President.

But yeah, the answer is that Bush won't really be doing anything. He'll just be present.
posted by Flunkie at 9:41 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]

Bush actually mentioned this in his slightly bizarre and defensive final press conference:

[after responding to a question about Katrina] The other part of the -- look, I was affected by the TV after the elections -- when I saw people saying, I never thought I would see the day that a black person would be elected President, and a lot of the people had tears streaming down their cheeks when they said it. And so I am -- I am -- consider myself fortunate to have a front-row seat on what is going to be an historic moment for the country. President-Elect Obama's election does speak volumes about how far this country has come when it comes to racial relations. But there's still work to do. There's always going to be work to do to deal with people's hearts.

And so I'm looking forward to it, really am. I think it's going to be -- it's going to be an amazing -- amazing moment.
posted by dhartung at 10:20 PM on January 18