THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD—IT CAN BE VERY PERSONAL

By Edwin Cooney

Okay! I wasn’t all that worried last Monday as President-Elect Obama and his wife Michelle visited the Bush’s. What was frustrating, however, was not knowing how well the two men got along, especially since the public end of the meeting came before the business end. Had the public part of the meeting occurred as the two men departed, a few sharp observers would surely have let all of us know what the visible signs were for either a smooth or stormy presidential transition.

Only ten times in our history has a defeated incumbent president turned his office over to a political opponent and it’s true that this wasn’t one of those times. Still, the process can be quite touchy.

The first time was in February 1801 when, because none of the top three candidates had a majority in the Electoral College, the election was decided by the House of Representatives. The incumbent John Adams was, for both political and personal reasons, reluctant to turn his office over to Vice President Thomas Jefferson. Author David McCullough reports, in his authoritative John Adams biography, that Adams never discussed publicly what went on between the two men during the struggle for House votes that February. However, Jefferson wrote later that he’d gone to the president’s mansion hoping to get Adams to use his prestige with Federalist congressmen. He wanted them to stop putting conditions on their support for a Jefferson victory in the House. Adams immediately showed his displeasure by addressing Jefferson in a manner unlike any he’d used in the past. He refused to urge Federalist congressman to abandon their demands. They wanted Jefferson to retain Federalist appointees, maintain the strength of the Navy, and they also wanted Jefferson to pay Federalist creditors. Adams acknowledged that the government would be Jefferson’s because “…we know it is the wish of the people it should be so,” but a warm friendship of decades had turned temporarily hostile. It would ultimately be resumed across the veil of time and distance but it didn’t bode well for the first historic transfer of political power and presidential authority in America.

John Quincy Adams surrendered the government to Andrew Jackson in 1829, but the two men didn’t meet before Adams’ early departure on Jackson’s March 4th Inauguration Day.

I’ve found no record of what Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison had to say to one another on March 4th, 1841 or what Benjamin Harrison (the elder Harrison’s grandson) had to say in 1889 and 1893 to Grover Cleveland as they twice exchanged the presidency. However, the 1913 transfer of the presidency between William Howard Taft and Woodrow Wilson was a bit notable. Taft, who not only lost to Wilson, but also to Theodore Roosevelt, stayed on for Wilson’s inauguration and then accompanied the new president back to the White House. Not only did he stay for lunch, he lingered to talk with Wilson to the extent that both the new president’s staff and Taft’s people grew uncomfortable. Taft had a train to catch and Wilson had an administration to begin, but the outgoing president was clearly reluctant to leave.

Nineteen-thirty-three was a landmark year in American history. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, elected over incumbent Republican President Herbert Clark Hoover back on November 8th, 1932, had nearly four months before taking office. The Hoover administration sought to bring FDR into the decision-making process on several occasions. FDR, however, almost completely avoided the politically toxic Hoover. The payback appeared to come late on the afternoon of Friday, March 3rd when President-Elect Roosevelt paid a courtesy call on President Hoover. FDR’s son James wrote that their social call was scheduled for teatime (at four o’clock) and that they arrived at the White House going through the south portico door for FDR’s convenience. They then took the elevator up to the first floor. They had to wait for thirty minutes until President Hoover arrived with Ogden Mills, the Treasury Secretary. When FDR firmly but politely refused to conduct business, they downed their tea and prepared to leave. FDR told the president that in view of his physical condition and the time it would take for him to get to his feet and leave the room, he’d understand if the president didn’t wait for him. Hoover’s response was to tell FDR coldly that he’d understand after being president for a while that the President of the United States waits for no one. Some accounts of this meeting assert that FDR stubbornly refused to be seated while waiting for Hoover’s arrival and that Hoover, knowing he would assume that posture on painfully crippled legs, deliberately kept him waiting.

Although they weren’t opponents in 1952, when President Truman and President-Elect Eisenhower met after the election, their former personal ease evaporated—a casualty of the late political campaign. Their one White House meeting was exceedingly stiff. When President-Elect Eisenhower’s car pulled up to the White House on Inauguration Day 1953, Ike waited in the car for the President to emerge from the White House. When Truman did arrive, Ike, as they drove to the Capitol, demanded to know why his son John, then serving in Korea, had been called home for the inauguration. Was it done to embarrass the incoming president, Ike wondered. Truman’s response was:

“He came home because he was ordered to do so by the President of the United States so that he could see his father inaugurated as his Commander-in-Chief.”

Jimmy Carter and Jerry Ford were opponents in 1976, but both men allowed politics to recede into the background during the transition. President Carter’s first words after taking the oath of office on January 20th, 1977 were: "For myself and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land." Jerry Ford and Jimmy Carter eventually became friends for life.

The relationship between Presidents Carter and Reagan was polite but formal. President Reagan followed President Carter’s example by thanking the outgoing Chief Executive for his public service. However, President Carter said later that their personal meeting was less productive than it could have been because President-Elect Reagan seemed uninterested in some documentation Carter wanted Mr. Reagan to see. Carter said Reagan just stared glassily off into the distance and said that his staff would bring him up to date on such information.

As for the transitions between Clinton and George H. W. Bush and between Clinton and George W. Bush, I have no information. However, President Bush apparently called President Clinton last Monday to remind him of and thank him once again for the very gracious way President Clinton had received him eight years ago.

As for last Monday, President Bush said nothing of what had been agreed to or what remained at issue between Barack Obama and himself on the subjects of the unstable economy here at home and the uncertainties abroad. However, President Bush seems to have been touched by President-Elect Obama’s insistence on visiting the rooms where his two little girls would be sleeping.

"Clearly, this guy is going to bring a great sense of family to the White House," Bush said. "I hope Laura and I did the same thing, but I believe he will and I know his girls are on his mind and he wants to make sure that first and foremost he is a good dad. And I think that's going to be an important part of his presidency."

That observation coming from a “family values” doctrine-oriented “conservative” has to be seen as something of a complement. In this era of doctrinaire politics and “the culture war”, any acknowledgment by one side of an opponent’s humanity is a most encouraging thing. For years I’ve asserted that the human dynamic among our leaders is not only important but that it is as essential to our ultimate success or failure as a society as any official strategy, document or policy.

In the final analysis, all that we read and observe about America’s past, present and future is personal because it personally matters to you and to me. Hence the experience of surrendering and receiving the awesome duties, power and responsibility of the presidency can hardly be any less personal—can it?

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY