Obama got it wrong in his second sentence:

[Old Crow]

30. I'm trying to understand your point...

... and not succeeding. Allow me to explain why I'm confused.

Surely you would agree that being president of the United States entails more than one responsibility, yes? It's not like the POTUS can say, OK, in my presidency, all I'm going to worry about is domestic policy--that and nothing else.

Of course not. Being POTUS, you wear many hats.

If you can agree with the above--and surely you can--I don't see how you can argue, as you do, that the POTUS has "one job." The role comprises many jobs or roles or functions, whatever noun you care to use. Certainly, the execution of all those jobs must be consistent with the presidential oath of office. But so long as the oath of office isn't being violated, I think it's obvious that each of those roles would have a different priority.

If I were to whiteboard this, it would look something like this:

OATH OF OFFICE: To preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America, while executing the following roles:
1. Promoter of domestic policy. Top priority: Enhance the well-being of the nation via appropriate legislation.
2. Promoter of international policy. Top priority: Enhance the well-being of the nation via treaties and diplomacy.
3. Champion of the bully pulpit. Top Priority: Champion ideas and policies in the public sphere that will strengthen the nation.
4. Commander-in-Chief. Top priority: The security of the American people.

Obama simply stated "As Commander-in-Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people."

I have no idea why a dozen or more DUers are wigging out about this. Do you really think that Obama and his speechwriters are unaware of the presidential oath of office? Do you really think they slipped up here and that this is some kind of a "gotcha" moment? Seriously?

Apparently, the opening statement you were looking for the president to deliver was as follows:

"As Commander-in-Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people--and let me hasten to add, that highest priority applies only to the role of Commander-in-Chief, as I've just stated, and is subservient to the overarching priority of the presidential oath of office; I want to be perfectly clear about that distinction for my friends at Fox News and for about a dozen members of Democratic Underground who are likely to misunderstand my intentions without that caveat."

~sigh~