The newly elected president, minutes into his inaugural speech made the statement: “Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath.”
This was incorrect.
He, though the 44th president, was but the 43rd American to take the presidential oath.
This is due to President Grover Cleveland who served two terms. But his two terms were separated by President Benjamin Harrison. Since they were not concurrent, Grover Cleveland is counted as both #22 and #24.
[Recall, we too have this problem thanks to the three terms of Benedict IX.]
Well, Pope John XXIII, immediately upon accepting his election and stating that he wished to be known as ‘John,’ provided this explanation to the cardinals that had just elected him: “Twenty-two Johns of indisputable legitimacy have [been pope], and almost all had a brief pontificate.”
The last part of that statement was indeed true. The average length of reign for the popes named ‘John’ are below that of the average for all popes.
The first part of the statement, however, was a slip — akin to Obama’s.
Though he would certainly be ‘John XXIII,’ i.e., the 23rd, there had not been 22 legitimate popes named ‘John’ prior to him. There had only been 20, with 3 antipopes. A numbering confusion in the 13th century meant that there was never a ‘John XX,’ pope or antipope.
So John XXIII shouldn’t have said 22, just like Obama should not have said 44.
But there is a big difference. John XXIII had one night of preparation time (him having realized the prior evening that he would most likely garner the votes necessary to be elected the following morning).
Obama, on the other hand, had over two months to prepare this speech — with a small army of speech writers to help. << smile >>
Thank you.
