Behind the Scenes, Teams for Both Candidates Plan for a Presidential Transition

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Behind the Scenes, Teams for Both Candidates Plan for a Presidential Transition
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: September 20, 2008

WASHINGTON — Though they hate to discuss it, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are quietly planning what to do in the frenetic 77-day period from the presidential election to Inauguration Day, so they will be ready to take up the reins of government.

Democrats said that John D. Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, was leading the transition preparations for Mr. Obama. Mr. Podesta, who founded a lobbying firm with his brother in 1988, is president of the Center for American Progress, a sort of government-in-exile waiting for Democrats to regain power. At the McCain campaign, Republicans said, transition work is being coordinated by William E. Timmons, a longtime Washington lobbyist whose clients have included the American Petroleum Institute and the mortgage company Freddie Mac. If Mr. McCain wins, Republicans said, his transition team will probably be led by Mr. Timmons and John F. Lehman, a McCain fund-raiser who was secretary of the Navy under President Ronald Reagan.

Both campaigns refused to discuss their transition plans, saying they did not want to jinx their chances or appear too cocky. The Obama campaign was stung in July when Republicans called Mr. Obama presumptuous for lining up transition advisers.

Clay Johnson III, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said “the White House staff has met with transition representatives” for Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama. “Both campaigns are doing what they need to do to be prepared to govern on Jan. 20 at noon,” said Mr. Johnson, who was executive director of the Bush transition team in 2000-1. “The amount of work being done before the election, formal and informal, is the most ever.”...

Presidential scholars, historians and former White House officials of both parties say that transition planning, far from being premature, ought to have begun months ago.

With the nation at war and financial markets in turmoil, “early planning for the transition is more important than ever,” said Martha Joynt Kumar, a professor of political science at Towson University in Maryland who is director of the White House Transition Project, a nonpartisan group that provides information and assistance to the transition teams of both candidates. Experts on national security worry that America’s opponents will try to take advantage of the uncertainty surrounding the transition, the first since the terrorist attacks of 2001. “In every transition, there’s a total vacuum for anywhere from three months to a year,” Mr. Lehman said. “It’s appalling. On 9/11, President Bush had only 30 percent of his national security appointees in place, and that was eight months after the inauguration.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/us/politics/21transition.html

[LiberalFighter]

1. Personally I don't think they should start the process until Nov 4th.