The Constitution doesn't specify exactly when a President's term expires. It merely states that the President "shall hold his office during the term of four years"; it doesn't say his term expires precisely at noon four years from the date of his (scheduled) swearing-in. Not until 1933 was the Constitution amended to specify the exact date and time at which a President's term expires:
Amendment XX (1933)
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
So, basically, Bush was no longer president at noon even though Obama hadnt been sworn in yet, but I dont think anyone (seriously) claims that the space between that expiration and the swearing in is actually a time of no-president or of the vice-president taking in that role.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-01-20 05:51 pm (UTC)Amendment XX (1933)
Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3d day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.
So, basically, Bush was no longer president at noon even though Obama hadnt been sworn in yet, but I dont think anyone (seriously) claims that the space between that expiration and the swearing in is actually a time of no-president or of the vice-president taking in that role.