Since Obama Won.

Americans like to think they perfected the peaceful transfer of power from old regime to new: no crimes, no coups, no blood in the streets. But that doesn't mean the future Former Leader of the Free World has an easy time handing over the keys to the White House. It's not just ego that has a way of fouling up this transition; both parties have one eye on the history books, as the outgoing President airbrushes the epilogue and the arriving one prepares the prologue.

President-elect Barack Obama has at least some advantages in his first meeting with President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday. In the history of handovers, things usually go a little more smoothly if the outgoing President is leaving by choice or constitutional mandate rather than if he has just been crushed on the field of electoral battle. While Obama ran against Bush's record, he never played to the personal loathing that animates many on the left; and Bush, by remaining at an undisclosed location throughout Campaign 2008, seldom had a bad word to say about Obama. That alone distinguishes them from past Presidents sharing the secret handshake, but Bush has also been uncommonly gracious for a departing POTUS. "Ensuring that this transition is seamless is a top priority for the rest of my time in office," Bush said in his Saturday radio address. "My Administration will work hard to ensure that the next President and his team can hit the ground running."

via CNN
MOCHA SOUL.