Splitting Verbs  What the inauguration can teach us about verbs.
Mignon Fogarty, January 23, 2009  Today's topic is how a verb
and an adverb messed up the inauguration.  Was There a Grammar
Mistake in the Inauguration of President Obama?  I took a break
from work Tuesday to watch Barack Obama's inauguration, and like
millions of other people, I saw a bit of confusion between Chief
Justice John Roberts and Obama during the oath of office.
Roberts started reading the oath for Obama to repeat: "I Barack
Hussein Obama." And then there was a problem. Obama started to
repeat him at the same time Roberts started to give the next
part of the oath: "do solemnly swear." Roberts seemed a little
unsettled and then put the adverb "faithfully" in the wrong
place in the next part of the oath. Obama seemed to know it was
wrong, paused, and seemed to urge Roberts to try again. Roberts
got it right the second time, but Obama repeated it the
incorrect way Roberts had said it the first time.  Here's what
it sounded like:  There