Transition-2008 Presidential Campaign

Transition Nuts and Bolts
After the excitement of Election Night, it is time to turn attention to building a new administration. In fact, preparation for the transition has been underway, quietly, for some time. During the latter part of the campaign, both major candidates designate people to head up the transition planning, and the outgoing administration take steps as well.

Now, however, it is the real thing. Amid euphoria and exhaustion, responsibility looms. Expectations are high. The one-time candidate must assume a "presidential aura." The president-elect and his transition team must make effective use of the time so as to "hit the ground running."

Charles Jones, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, has an interesting way of describing the process. He notes that the campaign is centered around one person, the candidate. After the campaign, the challenge is "attaching that person to the government." The transition requires skilled management. A certain amount of tension in this period is inevitable. People who have worked hard on the campaign now see others being brought in to manage the transition. There is much jockeying for position, various constituencies make their cases, and resumes proliferate.

The transition is not only the beginning of a new administration, but the end of an old one. Handing over the reins of power requires considerable preparation on the side of the outgoing administration. The new team must be briefed; records must be boxed and filed. During its waning days, the outgoing administration will also endeavor to get as much done as possible, attempting to produce some last accomplishments to add to its legacy and making a final round of appointments, executive orders, regulations, and pardons.

The president-elect's Cabinet selections make headlines, but in the transition office the focus is on the nitty gritty of building a new administration. Careful attention is given to selecting sub-cabinet personnel, learning about the pending issues in various agencies, and figuring out what policy initiatives to advance. Myriad sub-Cabinet posts must be filled, including deputy secretaries and agency heads. The White House staff also takes shape. There is no shortage of aspirants for positions in the administration; the transition office will receive tens of thousands of resumes. Care must also be taken to avoid early flaps which can undercut the fledgling administration's effectiveness and support.

Senate confirmation hearings of Cabinet nominees begin in relevant committees. Each nominee will have a team to guide him or her through the confirmation process; there are policy, legal, press and congressional affairs aspects to consider. Traditionally the Senate will not block a nominee unless he or she has ethical problems or is not qualified.

-The ACLU issued a paper that lists many of the actions that the new president should take in order to decisively signal a restoration of American values and a rejection of the shameful policies of the past eight years. The report, "Actions for Restoring America," includes recommendations for Obama's first day in office, first 100 days and first year.

-On Dec. 9, 2008 the Campaign for America's Future issued a "Main Street Recovery Program" which calls for a focus on public investments to stimulate the economy. The plan states, "Three percent of GDP - about $450 billion each year for two years, a total of $900billion - should define the floor, not the ceiling, of what needs to be done." One hundred and twenty seven economists, 27 major labor leaders and 59 public interest organizations signed a statement supporting the plan.

-In Nov. 2008 a coalition of over fifty groups issued a report "Advancing Reproductive Rights and Health in a New Administration." The report states that, "Greater investment in reproductive health care will improve women's health, reduce the incidence of disease, and promote healthy childbearing. It further notes that, " Skyrocketing costs and ideologically-driven government restriction have put reproductive health services out of reach for millions of women." The report, at 26-pages plus appendices, includes steps for the first hundred days and the next four years.

-The Gay and Lesbian Leadership Institute (GLLI), along with ten partner organizations, launched the Presidential Appointments Project, "a community-wide effort to identify strong LGBT candidates to serve in the Obama administration." According to its website, "The Project will ensure that qualified, committed and talented members of the LGBT community have a fair shot at being appointed to important federal positions." Interested individuals could submit an application and resume; GLLI thenn organized and categorized the resumes. Finally, "When appropriate, it will meet with staff from the Obama-Biden Transition Project to review the most qualified applicants."

-On Oct. 1, 2008 the Partnership for Public Service issued a "ROADMAP TO REFORM: A Management Framework for the Next Administration" [PDF] According to this report, "The key to improving our federal government’s operational health is a robust management framework — a roadmap to reform — that tackles challenges from federal budgeting to the use of technology to deliver services. The centerpiece of the president’s government reform plan needs to be a strategy to restore prestige to — and increase the capacity of — our federal workforce. Each aspect of the “people piece” of government deserves more attention, but the new president’s management framework should focus on the talented, but underutilized, civilian workforce. The goal should be clear: to improve organizational performance." (press release) also July 24, 2008 press release

United States Senate. "Managing the Challenges of the Federal Government Transition." Hearing before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, and the District of Columbia. Sept. 10, 2008.

General Transition
Martha Joynt Kumar and Terry Sullivan , eds. Feb. 2003. THE WHITE HOUSE WORLD: Transitions, Organization, and Office Operations (Joseph V. Hughes, Jr., and Holly O. Hughes Series in the Presidency and Leadership Studies, No. 13). Texas A&M University Press.

John P. Burke. Sept. 2000. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITIONS: From Politics to Practice. Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Carl M. Brauer. Dec. 1988. PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITIONS: Eisenhower through Reagan. Oxford University Press.

	Stephen Hess. Nov. 2008. WHAT DO WE DO NOW?: A Workbook for the President-elect. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press. "In What Do We Do Now? Stephen Hess draws from his long experience as a White House staffer and presidential adviser to show what can be done to make presidential transitions go smoothly. Here is a workbook to guide future chief executives, decision by decision, through the minefield of transition. You’ll have to start at the beginning, settling on a management style and knowing how to “arrange all the boxes.” Something as seemingly mundane as parceling office space can be consequential—hence the inclusion of a proposed White House organizational chart and floor plans of the West Wing. What qualities are needed for each job, and where are the best candidates for those positions most likely to be found? How can you construct a cabinet that “looks like America”? What Do We Do Now? is your indispensable guide through the thicket of these decisions."

	Anne Joseph O’Connell. Jan. 15, 2009. LET'S GET IT STARTED: What President-Elect Obama Can Learn from Previous Administrations in Making Political Appointments. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. "If President-elect Obama follows the example of recent presidents, he will finalize his initial top picks for the cabinet and heads of other major agencies by Inauguration Day but will take much longer to select individuals for lower layers of the bureaucracy. Staffing these lower but still critical positions is remarkably challenging. It takes many months to get the first wave of appointees into the bureaucracy. Once filled, these positions do not stay occupied for long. And near the end of a term or administration, these political positions empty out yet again... This report analyzes comprehensive new data on delays in the appointments process as well as appointee turnover in Senate-confirmed positions in executive agencies over the past five administrations." +

	Mark Green and Michele Jolin, eds. Jan. 15, 2009. CHANGE FOR AMERICA: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President. New York: Basic Books. "Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44th President is a framework to help the next administration steer the government in a new, more progressive direction." The Center for American Progress is releasing this book on Nov. 12, 2008. (John Podesta, one of the co-chairs of the transition is president and CEO of the Center for American Progress). Co-editor Michele Jolin is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Action Fund; co-editor Mark Green is founder and president of New Democracy Project.

	Robert Kuttner. Aug. 28, 2008. OBAMA'S CHALLENGE: America's Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing. "Barack Obama approaches the Presidency at a critical moment in American history, facing simultaneous crises of war, the environment, health care, but most especially in the economy. If he is able to rise to the moment, he could join the ranks of a small handful of previous presidents who have been truly transformative, succeeding in fundamentally changing our economy, society, and democracy for the better. But this will require imaginative and decisive action as Obama takes office, action bolder than he has promised during his campaign, and will be all the more difficult given the undertow of conventional wisdom in Washington and on Wall Street that resists fundamental change."