Obama, McCain Face Most Pressure Since FDR to Speed Transition

[depakid]

On the night of Nov. 4, either Barack Obama or John McCain will be celebrating his election as president. It may be a short party.

Whoever wins will come under intense, immediate pressure -- unmatched since Franklin D. Roosevelt's election in 1932 -- to begin participating in policy making over which he'll have no formal control for 2 1/2 months. Within days, the winner's economic advisers may be heading to the U.S. Treasury to help tackle the nation's worst financial crisis in more than seven decades.

``The situation is so serious that he has to be involved,'' says James Thurber, director of the center for congressional and presidential studies at American University in Washington. ``But he has to be very careful because he's not the president and won't be the president until he's sworn in.''

President George W. Bush's Treasury officials are encouraging the candidates to waste no time getting a grasp of the $700 billion financial-rescue effort, even saying their aides can work out of the department, according to people who have spoken with the department.

That unparalleled level of cooperation reflects a sense of urgency that the handoff by Bush be as smooth and fast as possible.

``The net effect you're searching for is a seamless transition,'' says Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University in Houston. ``It's exceedingly important that whoever wins names his economic team immediately. The Treasury post this time is gigantic.''

More: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aFyM0BoK72AM&refer=home

[goddess40]

1. And why would that be?

Could it be because the republican's have screwed up our country so badly that they have left us in a weakened state open to attack? They are the party that brought us the disaster known as George Bush and yet they believe they have the correct choice running for president this time around too - why should anyone believe them?

[depakid]

2. Even the Republicans know that the world markets have no confidence in Bush

The article concludes:

`There's only one president at a time,'' says John P. Burke, a University of Vermont professor who has written two books about presidential transitions. ``But maybe we've got to think about an exception here.'