So if I asked you who the 12th president of the United States was you would tell me Zachary Taylor, even if you happened to be a presidential historian. But see heres the problem, technically you'd be wrong.
In the same vein if I asked you if Obama will be the next person sworn in as president because he won the election, and we will assume the electoral college vote, you would tell me yes. And again technically no, not necessarily.
See January 20th is inauguration day according to the US Constitution, but if you notice all the tickets being sold and all the TV time put aside this January are for the 21st. Now why is that? well see January 20th is a Sunday and traditionally Americans don't do jack shit on Sunday and that includes the inauguration of the president.
The problem is the current Presidential term ends January 19th at 11:59pm, no matter what. So while Barack Obama will be president on the 19th, and on the 21st, so what will happen on the 20th?
Well this isnt the first time, or even the second time that has happened, either with the current inauguration date (Jan 20th) or the original inauguration date of March 4th. So as a country we've been through this before (7 times) and we've developed two different options.
The first option is the one used by Monroe, Hayes, Wilson, Eisenhower, and Reagan, and can be called the boring option (and to be honest the one Obama is probably gonna go with): The Constitution ONLY requires the oath be administered on the 20th, there is no requirement of any of the usual trappings. So on Sunday January 20th, someone (likely Chief Justice Roberts, although it doesnt have to be) will swear in Barack Obama in some backroom in the White House, then the next day they will go through the whole song and dance, with all the pomp and circumstance, publicly in the televised inauguration ceremony.
Basically think of it like this: your wedding day may or may not be the day you get married. For most people I'm sure it is, but everyone knows you gotta get a state marriage license to get married, and maybe you filled that out the night before or after your wedding. Which means thats the day you were officially married. But the thing is no one (including you) cares and everyone just pretends your wedding day was. That's basically all that's happening here. And like I said its fairly dull and boring (even if infinitely more likely), so lets move on to option 2.
The second option has only been used once, by the aforementioned Zachary Taylor. Taylor just flat out refused to take any oath of office on a Sunday, so they couldnt actually swear him in. His Vice President future president Millard Fillmore took the same hard line and refused to be sworn in.
Which was kinda a problem since the Constitution DEMANDS we have a president, so they just took the next guy in line and claimed he was President. See at the time, the laws of Presidential Secession made the "President pro tempore of the Senate" the acting Vice President whenever the Vice President was unavailable and made the Vice President the acting President when the president was unavailable. So Fillmore's refusal elevated the current "President pro tempore of the Senate" David Atchison to the Vice Presidency and the refusal of Talyor to take his oath elevated the Vice President (which was now Atchison) to the acting President. Now of course Atchison was fired the next day as Taylor and Fillmore were now willing to take their oaths. But still for one day, March 4th 1849 David Atchison could have claimed he was the President. In fact his tombstone bears the inscription "President of the United States for one day: Sunday March 4th 1849". Now it should be noted in fairness there was a small problem, at the time Congresses term also expired and was renewed with the presidency/vice presidency. And in order to officially be sworn in as "President pro tempore of the Senate", you have to be sworn in, which he hadnt been Now Atchison was the "President pro tempore of the Senate" of the outgoing congress as well, so they just pretended he had been resworn, but technically speaking he was ineligible to be "President pro tempore of the Senate" and therefore the VP or President....and the same situation would be true for everyone else in the line of Succession. So its also fair to say, that for one day we just didnt have a President.
Now the second half of that would be avoided under current US law. The 20th amendment moved the inauguration dates for the President and VP from March 4th back to January 20th but also moved the inauguration dates of the congress from March 4th back to January 3rd. Which means by the presidential inauguration members of congress will be sworn in.
So if we pretend Obama will follow in Taylor's example, who would be president the day of January 20th?
Well turns out thats a bit more complicated now. See we've also changed the line of Succession. The new number 2 in that line would be the Speaker of the House, which presumably would be John Boehner, although doesnt have to be since he has to stand for reelection to that position January 3rd.
So yes it is hypotheically possible that John Boehner could be president for a day.
And actually he's not the only one.
See in the few cases (with nixon mostly but others) when the number 2 in line has been from the opposition party he's shown a reluctance to want to take the job even temporarily, and in theory Boehner could take "a pass" which would pass the job to the current President pro tempore, Daniel Inouye, who otherwise would be the "VP for a day"
So yea, it turns out that despite having won the election, it is theoretically possible that Barack Obama wont be the next person to take the oath of office. Now like I've said a few times, he isnt going to go with the second option, simply because why go though all of that if you dont have to?
But heres the insane part, although Obama will likely take the Oath of Office in private on Sunday its not usually the kind of thing any president stays up for. Even when the actual inauguration ceremony is able to be held on the 20th its held late in the day. Which means there will be at least 12 hours between the expiration of one term and the official beginning of the next. Which also means that John Boehner will actually be the acting president (just as Nancy Pelosi was before him or Denis Hastert and Newt Gingrich were before her) for several hours. Granted no one is gonna care, but still its trivia you can use to amaze and wow your friends (or well more likely get an eye roll and called a nerd).
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