Bush made clear to his staff that he wanted a seamless transition, and indeed Joshua Bolten had been working for months mapping out a handover of power that would be the most cooperative ever between presidents of different parties. Bush invited Obama to the Oval Office for a long talk while Laura Bush gave Michelle Obama a tour of the residence. The White House produced more than a dozen contingency plans for Obama in case an international crisis erupted in the opening days of his administration, when he would still be short-staffed and not fully prepared. The memos envisioned all sorts of
...more
