The Unprecedented Presidential Transition

If it seems a little unusual that President-elect Barack Obama is holding daily press conferences and lining up legislation to be signed his first days in office that's because this is a presidential transition like no other. Perhaps it is indicative of the economic crisis, but the handing off of the baton to the 44th president stands out in many ways.

Some of the transitions from one administration to another in the past have gone smoothly, and others have been difficult. A recent article in the Los Angeles Times referred to the period between the end of James Buchanan's presidency and the start of Abraham Lincoln's as, "Arguably the most catastrophic transition in American history." President Buchanan did little to stop the flood of states seceding from the Union the last months of his term, thus making the Civil War impossible for Lincoln to avoid.

There have been many transitions marked by animosity, such as John Adams snubbing Thomas Jefferson by refusing to accompany the new president to the Capitol for the inauguration. Or there was the hostility between Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, which did not help the financial situation during the changeover in 1933.

The willingness of President Bush to work with President-elect Obama has certainly distinguished this transition from others. However, it is not only the willingness of the Bush administration to cooperate with Obama, it is also, as the article in the Los Angeles Times stated, "the near-record speed and precision with which Obama has named his team and outlined a sweeping agenda for dealing with the worst economic crisis in a generation."

Obama's swiftness in setting up his White House staff stands in stark difference to the pre-inauguration days of Bill Clinton. The months leading up to Clinton's transition into the White House were full of high-profile cabinet appointments, but little was done to put a staff together until a few weeks before his inauguration. With the same attentive determination he used for his campaign, Obama quickly put a staff together in the days after his nomination starting with Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff.

To say that Obama has also made some high-profile cabinet appointments is putting it mildly. This week has seen the nomination of campaign rivals Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State and Bill Richardson for Secretary of Commerce. It is rare for future presidents to install their former foes into their cabinets. There are other unusual steps like making Robert Gates the first Secretary of Defense to be carried over from one administration to the next.

The next president of the United States will come into the office in January with a nation fighting a war in two countries, a financial crisis the likes-of -which has not been seen in generations and the constant threat of global terrorism. Even without the backdrop of the daunting job facing President-elect Obama, the few months between the nomination of one president and the end of the term of another can be times of much uncertainty. During this transition Americans can be certain that an ambitious plan is being made.

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