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For this crisis, a job for two presidents
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WASHINGTON - America has never seen anything quite like this: The president and president-elect acting like co-presidents, consulting and cooperating on the day's biggest crisis.
What Princeton University Prof. Julian Zelizer calls "the split-screen presidency" is the result of several historic forces converging this fall.
The 24-7 nature of the global economy demands timely reaction.
The incoming and outgoing presidents have personal and political reasons to show that they can manage a crisis.
The president-elect, Barack Obama, "believes in strong government and wants to get things under way immediately," said William Leuchtenburg, a University of North Carolina professor who has written extensively about the presidency.
The lame-duck president, George W. Bush, is leaving office voluntarily. "Bush was not defeated. That makes for an easier relationship," Leutchtenburg said.
This transition lacks the formality -- and the coolness -- of the last two transfers of power that occurred during tough economic times, the 1980-81 change from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan and the 1993 end of George H.W. Bush's term as Bill Clinton took office. Both new presidents then had defeated the former ones.
Monday gave a vivid illustration of the courtesy that has characterized the Bush-Obama minuet.
Bush had a cup of coffee in midmorning with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to discuss the government's decision Sunday to help banking giant Citigroup. Later, on the steps of the Treasury building, next door to the White House, Bush assured the nation that Washington was ready to take similar action to help other financial institutions.
His statement took only two minutes, but it included this reference to his successor: "I talked to Obama about the decision we made. I told the American people, and I told the president-elect when I first met him, that any time we were to make a big decision during this transition, he will be informed, as will his team."
About an hour and a half later, Obama unveiled his economic team at a Chicago news conference and mentioned that he'd spoken to Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke earlier Monday.
Some transitions have been downright icy. After the 1932 election, as America reeled from the Great Depression, incumbent Herbert Hoover tried last-ditch initiatives, but incoming President Franklin Roosevelt refused to cooperate.
Roosevelt wouldn't even make public statements. "There was one time when reporters tried to ask him questions," Leuchtenburg said. "He smiled and held his index finger to his lips."
Feeling a need for action
That probably would not work today, not with 24-hour cable news channels, Internet videos and markets gyrating on the slightest hint of news. When the media began suggesting last Friday that Obama had picked New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary, the Dow Jones industrial average jumped nearly 500 points.
"People feel a need for immediate action," said George Edwards, a presidential expert at Texas A&M University. "In the past, you could usually wait."
Obama, analysts argue, needs to appear in control not only to reassure markets but also to establish his credibility. The former Illinois U.S. senator has no record of economic management and was barely known outside his home state until he ran for president.
"It's not unusual for the president-elect to have news conferences, but in an economic crisis, it's particularly important that you give people confidence," Edwards said.
Bush has his own motivations.
"To a large degree, Bush's legacy is in the hands of Barack Obama," said Tim Blessing, the director of the presidential performance study at Alvernia University in Reading, Pa. The more they're seen working together, the more Bush could get some credit for any Obama successes next year.
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