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Jim Hoagland can't quite connect the dots

By Jack M. Balkin

Jim Hoagland's column in yesterday's Washington Post, entitled "Obama's 77-Day Sprint," begins as follows: "Lengthy presidential transitions rank among the oddest of America's political traditions. In the 21st century, they are also among the most dangerous. " One might think that somewhere in the column Hoagland would mention that they are not the product of unwritten "tradition" (such as the limitation of the Supreme Court to nine members, whatever earlier realities), but, rather, a hard-wired feature of our Constitution, thanks to a mixture of choosing to "elect" presidents through the Electoral College plus the 20th Amendment. But one would be wrong in any such expectation. Hoagland joins the (dis)honor role of otherwise able and astute pundits who seem "constitutionally incapable" of recognizing any connection between a feature of our political system that they justifiably condemn and our sacred Constitution. Instead we are urged to read an undoubtedly fine book, "Difficult Transitions," by Kurt Campbell and my University of Texas colleague James Steinberg, which, according to the Table of Contents, is full of policy advice but seems devoid of any discussion of the wisdom of actually amending the Constitution to forestall this "dangerous" American political "tradition." Argh.....

Full post as published by Balkinization on December 08, 2008 (boomark / email).