White House switch

President-elect Barack Obama made his first step into the Oval Office in his visit to the White House Monday with his wife, Michelle, where they met with President Bush and his wife, Laura. A meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents this soon after an election is unusual, if not unprecedented.

But these, as President Bush reminded the nation, are unprecedented times.

"Our country faces economic challenges that will not pause to let a new president settle in," the president said in his radio address last week. "This will also be America's first wartime presidential transition in four decades. We're in a struggle against violent extremists determined to attack us-and they would like nothing more than to exploit this period of change to harm the American people."

The Bush administration has been preparing with other federal agencies for the transition to the next president for over a year now. Bush activated a White House transition council in October. Obama received his first intelligence briefing two days after the election.

Bush knows the value of a lengthy transition period. His own transition was rushed and not nearly so orchestrated, straining projects going forward like his faith-based initiatives office. When President Clinton handed the reins to Bush in 2001, Bush had less than half the time Obama will have to prepare for the highest office in the land. After the controversial 2000 election and weeks of legal wrangling in Florida, the handover did not begin until late December. Bush met with Clinton on Dec. 19, 2001, and the Clinton administration left $15,000 in damage to the White House upon departure.

"A transition's most precious commodity is time. … The 2000 recount limbo stole 36 days from a process that already zips along at a dizzying pace," Bush transition team member Justice Don Willett told WORLD. Willett now sits on the Supreme Court of Texas. "We were all drinking from a fire hose set on full blast."

Obama's decision to quickly name a chief of staff is one demonstration of his understanding that he needs extensive preparation to navigate the difficult waters ahead. His pick of the fiery Rep. Rahm Emanuel has led the news, but the Obama team is quick to recognize that Bush hasn't handed over the reins yet.

"He will be the president until January 20th," said Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of Obama's transition team, in a Nov. 9 interview with Tom Brokaw. "However, given the daunting challenges that we face, it's important that President-elect Obama is prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one."

Other than the measurements of White House drapes, Obama and Bush have two wars, economic woes, and upcoming legislation in Congress' lame-duck session to discuss. Also, leaders of the G-20 countries gather in Washington this weekend for a summit on the worldwide economic crisis. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino has said the president will not compromise on principles or policies with Obama, but he will seek to prepare him as best he can for the task ahead and keep him informed. Obama, for his part, said he was visiting 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue "with a spirit of bipartisanship," though he ran his campaign largely attacking the president's policies.

"Transitions are no time for partisan point-scoring, and that high-road tone is set by the president himself," said Willett. "The Bush-to-Obama transition will go down as the gold standard. It's like watching a duck on a pond. Beneath the water, there's a flurry of furious, round-the-clock paddling. But above the surface, things look silky smooth."

The conversation between the two will be private. Outside of the White House, every other federal agency continues to prepare for the transition, which involves about 3,000 Bush appointees who will leave their posts.