Presidential Transitions: 2008
Going into the 2008 election, it was clear that as the Republican Party's nominee for president, John McCain would have a steep hill to climb to the presidency. The incumbent Republican President George W. Bush had very low approval ratings by the beginning of 2008, his final year in office. Bush's approval rating had dropped to a low of just 19 percent, largely because of the loss of support among Republicans. In the spring of the year, Bush's disapproval ratings reached the highest ever recorded for any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll, with 69 percent of those polled in April 2008 disapproving of the job Bush was doing as president, although 66 percent of Republicans still approved of his job performance. But in polls conducted in the fall, just before the 2008 election, his approval ratings remained at record lows of 19 to 20 percent, while his disapproval ratings ranged from 67 percent to as high as 75 percent. While this presented a considerable disadvantage for McCain, President Bush was less concerned, telling reporters, "I make decisions on what I think is right for the United States based upon principles. I frankly don't give a damn about the polls."
In the fall of 2008, It became clear that the economy was suffering its most serious downturn since the Great Depression. During this period, John McCain's election prospects fell even more. On September 15, the day of that Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy, McCain was speaking at a morning rally in Jacksonville, Florida. He told the crowd, "the fundamentals of our economy are strong." The comment was used against McCain for the rest of the campaign to make him appear out of touch with economic reality. Voters looked to Democratic candidate Barack Obama for hope and change.
On September 24, 2008, after the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, McCain announced that he was suspending his campaign to return to Washington to help craft a $700 billion bailout package for the troubled financial industry. He stated that he would not debate Obama until Congress passed the bailout bill. The first version of the bill failed to pass in the House. McCain eventually decided to attend the first presidential debate on September 26, despite Congress' lack of immediate action on the bill. His reversal in decision to attend the debates were seized upon to portray McCain as erratic in his response to the economy. Days later, a second version of the original bailout bill was passed by both the House and Senate, with Obama, his vice presidential running mate Joe Biden, and McCain all voting for the measure.
On November 4, Obama won the presidency with 365 electoral votes to 173 received by McCain. Obama won 52.9% of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7%. He became the first African American to be elected president and he delivered his victory speech before hundreds of thousands of supporters in Chicago's Grant Park.
Earlier, in mid-October, President Bush appointed a 14-member council to coordinate with and brief the winning campaign's transition team. On November 6, President-Elect Obama received his first classified intelligence briefing from the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency. President Bush invited Obama to attend the 2008 G-20 Washington summit held between November 15 and 20, however Obama's transition team sent former Republican Rep. Jim Leach and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in his place to meet with the delegations.
On November 10, Obama traveled to the White House and met with President Bush to discuss transition issues while First Lady Laura Bush took his wife Michelle on a tour of the mansion. Obama advanced his economic agenda with Bush, asking him to attempt to pass a stimulus package in a lame duck session of Congress before the inauguration. He also urged Bush to accelerate the disbursement of $25 billion in funds to bail out the automobile industry and expressed concern about additional Americans losing their homes as mortgage rates increase again.
To his credit, President Bush took measures to make the transition as seamless as possible for the incoming administration, earning accolades from Obama staff members and outside experts alike. The Bush administration streamlined the process for new officials to obtain security clearances and planned training exercises for the incoming national security team, to ensure that they would be ready to face a possible crisis on the first day in office. The Bush administration did not wish to repeat the difficulties it had with its own transition, due in part to resentment from the departing Clinton staffers who questioned Bush's legitimacy as president.
In accordance with Article I, Section 6 of the United States Constitution, Obama and his running mate Joe Biden were required to resign their respective Senate seats on or before January 20, 2009, in order to become President and Vice President. Obama resigned from the Senate effective November 16, 2008. Initially, it was thought that his replacement would be named by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Since the term for the seat expired in January 2011, it would come up for its normal election in 2010 with no special election necessary. Blagojevich was expected to name Obama's immediate successor in the Senate by January 3, 2009. However, on December 9, 2008, the status of Obama's succession in the Senate was cast in doubt after Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges, which included allegedly attempting to sell the appointment. Blahojevich was placed in federal custody and later released on $4,500 bail. he was not required to resign as governor however and continued to have sole authority to make the appointment. Obama called for Blagojevich's resignation on December 10. Illinois Senate president Emil Jones decided to call the state Senate back into session to write a law that would result in Obama's replacement being determined in a special election. But after the state legislature could not pass a law mandating a special election for the seat, on December 30, Blagojevich announced that he was appointing Roland Burris, a former Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Comptroller, and U.S. Treasury Department official, to the seat, citing his constitutional duty in the absence of a law requiring a special election. However, the US Senate Democrats released a statement in which they reaffirmed that they would refuse to seat anyone appointed to the seat by Blagojevich.
Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus expressed their support for seating Burris, who would be the only African-American in the Senate. Bobby Rush called the Senate rejection of Burris a lynching. However, President-elect Obama released a statement condemning the appointment and again calling on Blagojevich to resign. Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White, reiterated that he would not certify any appointment made by Blagojevich, although at the time it was not clear whether this would prevent Burris from taking office.
On January 9, 2009, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled in the case Burris v. White that the appointment only required the signature of the governor to be valid, and not that of the Illinois Secretary of State. Following the ruling, White provided Burris with a certified copy of the appointment's registration, and Burris delivered that copy, that bears the State Seal, to the Secretary of the Senate. His credentials declared valid, Burris was finally sworn in on January 15, 2009, by outgoing President of the Senate Dick Cheney.
On December 5 the transition team announced that "all policy documents from official meetings with outside organizations will be publicly available for review and discussion on Change.gov." After the inauguration, many of the functions of change.gov were transferred to a redesigned White House website.
Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States on Tuesday, January 20, 2009. The inauguration set a record attendance for any event held in Washington, D.C. The presidential oath as administered to Obama during his swearing-in ceremony on January 20 strayed slightly from the oath of office prescribed in the United States Constitution, which led to its re‑administration the next day. The inaugural address contained several biblical references, but also highlighted the nation's religious diversity, referring to the country's "patchwork heritage" as a strength and saying, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and non-believers." This was the first time a United States President acknowledged American non-believers in an inaugural address.
On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession. The act includes increased federal spending for health care, infrastructure, education, various tax breaks and incentives, and direct assistance to individuals. In March, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner took further steps to manage the financial crisis, including introducing the Public-Private Investment Program for Legacy Assets, which contains provisions for buying up to two trillion dollars in depreciated real estate assets. In March 2009, loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations were renewed. Over the following months the White House set terms for both firms' bankruptcies, including the sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat and a reorganization of GM giving the U.S. government a temporary 60% equity stake in the company, with the Canadian government taking a 12% stake. In June 2009, the president signed into law the Car Allowance Rebate System, known colloquially as "Cash for Clunkers", that temporarily boosted the industry.
Spending and loan guarantees from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department authorized by the Bush and Obama administrations totaled about $11.5 trillion, but only $3 trillion was spent by the end of November 2009.