Priorities are everything in a transition, a process which is in many ways path dependent, to take a trip down poli-sci memory lane. This morning, Politico had a blind quote (that seems to have since disappeared) up on their infinitely confusing "Politico 44" page that said we shouldn't expect Cabinet announcements this week because the White House staff is coming first. Similarly blind-quoted, a little bird tells me that transition planners have made this WH-staff-first idea a priority since early meetings. Indeed, given the power that White House staff generally have over the policy-making agenda, it makes sense to start there and work down the chain of responsibility.
In an interesting transcript from a CAP event on transitions (there is a lot of gold here and here), Martha Kumar, a political scientist who studies government hand-offs, had this to say:
The White House staff come first. I think, in addition to having a climate of support, the kind of supports and actions that you need, you need a White House staff, the senior people in place. And the reason why is you need a chief of staff who's going to be involved in setting up a decision-making system. You don't want to make big decisions like the cabinet, until you have a decision-making system in place, where you know what information the president wants, what information you think he needs, what – how you're going to staff out decisions coming up to him. And you do want that in place, so he doesn't make early mistakes.
In many ways, this is shaping up to be the most effective transition in a long time. This is due to the fruits of some of the first efforts to analyze transition best-practices, the seriousness of the Obama team, and the diligent efforts of the White House to do a good job handing over the reins of power. Regarding this last item, the White House's desire to improve their legacy alongside their actual good intentions has led to a process that deserves kudos thus far. Of course, now that I've written that, some kind of terrible vetting scandal will occur and ruin Obama's first hundred days.
--Tim Fernholz
