Legal Commentary

A fuller response to Hadar's query: At 11:50 a.m. EST tomorrow, I will dismiss my civ pro class (we usually go until 12:15 and I can make the 25 minutes up in our next meeting). I will tell them that class is dismissed because in ten minutes, political power will be transferred peacefully (barring anything truly unforeseen) to a different executive from a different political party planning to bring about a [ed: hopefully very] different governing agenda. Whatever one's thoughts about the outgoing and incoming executives or about the racial and cultural significance of this particular Inauguration, celebrate the procedure. However routine the exchage has become, do not take it for granted. Peaceful transition is what makes a true liberal democracy. In form and even substance, elections are easy--Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Pakistan, all routinely hold elections. Actually surrendering and exchanging power without violence, conflict, or social convulsion is hard.

So, for a fictional (although accurate) look at the presidential transition behind the scenes, check out this clip from the series finale of The West Wing. Around the 2:15 mark, over a blues rendition of "America the Beautiful," staffers begin bloodlessly shifting the Oval Office and the White House: taking all of President Bartlet stuff out of the Oval Office (note the copy of Foucault) and moving Santos's stuff in, taking down Bartlet's official portrait and putting Santos's up in the same spot on the wall. It is a neat sequence, capturing visually how engrained peaceful transition is, when we get to focus on the mundane details.