President Elect Barack Hussein Obama has been blessed with a smooth transition so far. He has met with the sitting President and been assured of a trouble-free and an informed exchange of power, made scores of Cabinet appointments, pontificated from the pulpit of The Office of the President Elect, and squeezed in a smoke or two as well as a few basketball games.
Now let your minds go back to 2000 at this time. George W. Bush had only made a handful of Cabinet appointments by December 19, 2000. What? Why was that? Because he’s a monkey? Doofus? Idiot? Balaam’s donkey? has the IQ of cordwood?
On this date in 2000, George W. Bush had only held The Powerful Office of President Elect for seven days. Al Gore had demanded recounts in not the whole state but four primarily Democrat counties in Florida. Bush won the first recount on Wednesday morning, November 8. Remember, now, that’s the second time Bush won Florida in consecutive days. However, Gore, knowing then what Al Franken knows now, realized that the more recounts that take place, the more Democrat votes that will appear out of thin air, and kept demanding further recounts.
Even more fascinating, people like Michael Moore seemed to discover for the first time ever that our Presidential elections were determined by the Electoral College, as though Bush had implemented this wicked institution just for 2000 to steal an election.
As a result, Bush’s cabinet appointments were delayed for more than a month. His inauguration was marked with sophisticated protestors and classy rioters. Bill Clinton didn’t even give Bush the phone number of the pizza girl. And members of Clinton’s staff five-finger discounted White House trimmings and computer keyboard “W’s.” They didn’t even leave any Rose Law Firm records behind.
Less than eleven months later, the terrorist attacks on 9-11 would dwarf the 168 people killed by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City as the worst terrorist attack on American soil. The plot was hatched by Osama Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a meeting in 1996. The planning stages of the plan took place on Clinton’s watch.
Eight years later, Bush is pledging Obama an uncomplicated shift of power, going so far as fading all the heat on the economic recession. Bush is showing more Presidential class by going the extra mile for Obama’s transition than either living Democrat President did for their successors.
After the Florida election results were certified, Bush gave a speech on December 13, 2000, in which he proclaimed he was going to reach across the aisle to unify a divided America and declared “the President of the United States is the President of every single American, of every race, and every background.” How did that work out for you, Mr. President?