Note: For updates on appointments and the transition, visit www.whitehousetransitionproject.org.
With Barack Obama’s announcement on Dec. 1 of his national security appointees, the president-elect and his transition team finished designating the new core Cabinet in record time.
With Barack Obama’s announcement on Dec. 1 of his national security appointees, the president-elect and his transition team finished designating the new core Cabinet in record time.
An analysis of presidential transitions led by a political scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill notes that the team designated appointees for all four core Cabinet positions – the secretaries of state, defense and treasury and the attorney general – within 27 days of the election, the fastest pace in the last 30 years. It shattered the old record by 12 days.
Besides the core Cabinet, the team was second-fastest in 30 years in naming choices in another category, the core White House staff. Those also were chosen within 27 days of the election, beating the average time by about two and a half weeks.
Speed is of the essence when it comes to the ability of the new administration to hit the ground running rather than having to learn on the job, said Terry Sullivan, Ph.D., associate professor of political science in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences and executive director of the White House Transition Project.
“The advantage of completing the cabinet, especially the core Cabinet, early is that it affords the new president an opportunity to focus the entire administrative apparatus of the executive branch on the new president’s priorities and agenda quickly when he takes office,” he said.
The core White House staff – which also includes the staff secretary, director of the Office of Management and Budget, National Security Adviser and the White House counsel – manages the president’s decision-making process and so is critical to establishing the complex rhythms of a working White House, Sullivan said.
“Critical decision-making takes practice and preparation,” Sullivan said. “It is not something that just happens because people are talented. It requires a well-functioning process.”
The White House Transition Project, a multi-institutional, nonpartisan effort to facilitate transitions from one administration to the next, compiled a database on presidential transitions over the last 30 years, starting with the Ford-Carter transition. The average time for completing the core Cabinet appointments and core White House staff over that 30-year period was 46 days.
“Before Monday, the quickest transition in appointing a core Cabinet was that of President George H. W. Bush in 1988-89, completing the group 39 days after his election,” Sullivan said. “The Obama transition completed the core cabinet on day 27.”
On Dec. 3, Obama designated Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) as his choice for secretary of commerce. Many do not consider that post to be part of the core Cabinet, but if it were, Obama’s team still set a record with all nominations to that group accomplished in 29 days, Sullivan said.
In appointing a core White House staff, the Obama transition came in 10 days behind the fastest time, a record still held by George H.W. Bush.
“It is hard to overestimate the scope of the decisions that presidents make, especially the early decisions about agenda, focus and direction,” Sullivan said. “If they were easy, they wouldn’t get to the president’s desk, so a system has to be in place and working well for the president to get the right information and the right options at the right time. That is the function of the core White House staff. That is why it is critical they start working together as early as possible.”
President George W. Bush’s transition team was the first to be advised by the White House Transition Project, created in 1997 to provide non-partisan information about the challenges of the American presidential transition and strategies for overcoming those challenges. On the project’s Web site, http://whitehousetransitionproject.org/, prospective administration officials can read descriptions of White House jobs, which are unlike any other posts that most new appointees have held before.
The Web site includes an institutional memory series of observations by former White House officials and Cabinet members from a variety of administrations and both parties.
Members of the transition project are UNC-Chapel Hill, Towson University in Maryland, Internet partner www.ibiblio.org at UNC, the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston, the Washington, D.C.-based Council for Excellence in Government, the presidency research group of the American Political Science Association, the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and the Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ school.
Note: Sullivan can be reached at (919) 593-2124 or Sullivan@ibiblio.org
Note: Two alumni of the UNC College of Arts and Sciences have been chosen to join the new administration. Melody C. Barnes, who received a bachelor’s degree with honors in history in 1986, is the president-elect’s choice to head the White House Domestic Policy Council. Rob Nabors, who received a master’s degree in political science in 1996, has been tapped for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.
UNC College of Arts and Sciences contact: Dee Reid, (919) 843-6339
News Services contact: LJ Toler, (919) 962-8589