![]() Editor: Steven Tyler.Look up lame duck in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Ī lame duck situation generally refers to a time frame between a decision and its implementation. "Leadership in Turbulent Times" by Doris Kearns Goodwin (Simon & Schuster), in Hardcover, Trade Paperback, Audio and eBook formats, available via Amazon and Indiebound."And I think it's a real loss – for him, for his legacy, and for the country, most importantly." "History's gonna look back at this transition period, even as it is now, I think, with very troubled eyes," Goodwin said. This presidential transition period has been bereft of all these rituals.įor only the fifth time in American history, the outgoing chief executive won't attend his successor's Inauguration. Because these two people are able to get together, then we can, too." President Barack Obama meets with President-elect Donald Trump to discuss transition plans, in the White House Oval Office in Washington, D.C., November 10, 2016. And all of those moments, those are visual and emotional signs to the country at large, to the supporters who are disappointed, who lost the election, to the new people coming in, that they're not gonna gloat. The outgoing president invites the family of the new president to come in and tour the mansion, it's gonna be the home of the new person. Typically during this time, the outgoing president hosts the incoming one. That's a signal to the country, because there're supporters all over the country that have to make that same transition," she said. And he has to take them from that moment to that next moment of acceptance. Goodwin said the concession speech has long been a vital step in consoling supporters, and helping them move on: "These people are filled with emotion. But it's really something more than that." "When you think about it, the word 'transition period' just conjures up something bureaucratic. And these were just traditions that developed," Goodwin said. "They're not in the Constitution – a concession speech, a congratulatory call." "Those rituals, few of them are mandated by law," Rocca said. Roosevelt tips his top hat while sitting in the back of a car with former President Herbert Hoover at the Inauguration in Washington, D.C., March 4, 1933.Īnd that ride is just one of the traditions we've come to expect during the transition season. So, it may not have been, you know, the most friendly of transitions, but they were trying to work together." President Franklin D. "But Hoover did ride in the car?" Rocca asked. ![]() Hoover had suffered a humiliating defeat, and according to Goodwin, the ride he shared with FDR to the Capitol on Inauguration Day 1933 was "very frosty." "It's hard to imagine – I mean, Franklin Roosevelt really did not know in January and February and March whether the government could collapse before he even had a chance to put his own programs into use," Goodwin said. And then, within the matter of weeks after that, seven states secede from the Union."ĭuring the Great Depression, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt waited to take the reins from lame duck Herbert Hoover, the country itself was on life support. "I can't even imagine what it was like during the period of time between Buchanan and Lincoln," said Goodwin. After Abraham Lincoln's election in November 1860, he had to wait four months (back then the Inauguration wasn't until March) before President James Buchanan vacated the premises. Goodwin said, "Originally, the purpose of the waiting period was to give time for the new president to get from wherever they were to Washington, D.C., and that purpose seems to be less necessary today given modern transportation."īut 2020 isn't the first tumultuous transition. To many people, the 78 days between November 3 and January 20 are feeling like 78 years … which raises the question, why is this period so long?
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