www.roanoke.com

Later this month, President Obama is expected to lift travel restrictions to Cuba for Americans with relatives there and also lift the limit on the amount of money Americans can send to family members on the island. In an unscheduled editorial, we'll note that both steps will be in keeping with Obama's campaign promises and show a welcome openness to thawing a frozen relationship that has not served either country well.

You can read Sen. Richard Lugar's staff assessment, which concludes a change in policy toward Cuba is in U.S. interests, here. Lugar is ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

AP Photo/Jeff Christensen

What did people think of the flubbed oath of office? The Votemaster over at electoral-vote.com has a particularly scathing analysis that counts four mistakes in the oath and questions how Chief Justice John Roberts could botch it so badly.

I hope Obama went backstage, grabbed the Lincoln Bible, and did it properly. Otherwise we're bound to have some the same sort of yahoos who filed court cases alleging he wasn't born in America filing suits that he never took the oath of office.

Hoboken University Law School Dean Noah Swayne explained that since Obama never uttered the oath called for by the Constitution, he is not president.

“The closest analogy I can make, of course, is the old Bewitched television series,” Dean Swayne explained. “If the words of an incantation weren’t uttered just right, the spell didn’t take. It’s the same thing here.”

Although the Bewitched precedent is often cited in American jurisprudence, such cases likely would not fare well.

Some even argue that Biden was or is president, or that Condaleeza Rice was the first black and female president for a couple of minutes because the oath was late.

We'll be there when John McCain and Barack Obama meet for their third and final debate. By there, of course, I mean parked on our couches watching the debate on television and typing our thoughts. Please join us for our live blog Wednesday at 9 pm.

The RT is now on twitter.com. To get updates and alerts about what's happening on The Roanoke Times editorial blog, click here, then click "follow." We'll send out updates when we put up the day's editorial and commentary for discussion.

From now on, in order to comment to The RT, we will require a valid e-mail address.

We will conduct random checks to ensure that addresses are valid. The address you submit is not public, and not accessible to spam bots. It will not be used for any other purpose than verification.

In addition, please remember that this is intended to be a forum for polite and respectful debate. Personal attacks against fellow commenters or the editorial page staff of The Roanoke Times will not be allowed. Address the argument, not the person.

We will continue to delete any libelous comments.

Thank you

Welcome to The RT. That’s The Roanoke Times RoundTable, our new editorial page blog.

What The RT becomes will be largely up to readers. But we envision a place for a healthy and civil dialogue among The Roanoke Times editorial page staff and the community.

Read more.

Read more »