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This is ‘peaceful transfer’?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Whatever we were told about a presidential inauguration symbolizing the United States’ tradition of a “peaceful transfer of power” from one administration to the next one has been trampled under a stampede or rioters.

The mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 has inflicted potentially mortal wounds on the nation’s tradition of that transfer of power. We used to boast about how we can change presidents peacefully even after bitter campaigns. How in the world can we make that claim in light of what has occurred since Nov. 3, when Donald Trump lost his re-election bid to Joseph Biden?

Trump built his resistance to Biden’s election on a lie, that the election was tainted by “widespread vote fraud.” The lie resulted in what transpired a few days ago when the terrorists marched to Capitol Hill and stormed into the center of our democratic government. It killed five people. The rioters ransacked the Capitol Building.

We have not experienced a peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump’s administration to a government led by the man who beat him, Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated in a city swarming with 25,000 Army reservists deployed to deter rioters from repeating what they did the other day.

It is going to take a long time to repair the damage done by the terrorists and by the man for whom they marched against our system of government. It surely won’t be repaired in time for President Biden to launch his administration. Or the next president or the one after that.

It is not too much of a leap to suggest that we have lost another element of our national innocence. I hate to consider the notion that our peaceful presidential transition was merely a delusion. That it really didn’t exist except in our imagination.

It did for more than two centuries. It survived world wars, the Civil War, a Great Depression, constitutional crises.

Then we had an election between a career politician and a businessman who masqueraded as a president, a guy who said after he won the 2016 election that the vote count then was fraudulent as well. The result in 2020 turned Donald Trump out and he has resisted the outcome to the detriment of our entire nation.

I never thought I would witness this kind of transition. It is a nightmare in broad daylight.

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Trump gripes, transition moves on

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

It’s good to remember this while Donald Trump keeps lying about “widespread voter fraud,” a “rigged election” and how he “won handily.”

He can bitch and moan all he wants. The transition between his administration and President-elect Biden’s administration has begun. Joe Biden thinks he’s behind a little bit, but I am one American patriot who believes he is well-positioned, well-educated, well-versed in government enough to engineer a transition that will be as seamless as it could be … under difficult circumstances.

Those circumstances were brought on by Trump’s foot-dragging, his refusal to accept the obvious — that he lost the Nov. 3 election — and by his obstinance in clinging to power. There’s also the pandemic, which Trump also refuses to address head-on. The moron.

Biden’s knowledge of the government he will inherit and his deep reservoir of contacts with that government will serve him well.

So, to Donald Trump … you can bitch all you want. Most of us — and the world watching from afar — know what’s about to happen. You will be gone. Goodbye and good fu**ing riddance. 

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Trump admits defeat … finally?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If any reader of this blog believes I am about to offer a good word to Donald Trump for authorizing the beginning of the transition to a new administration, well … it ain’t gonna happen.

Trump has told the General Services Administration to begin the formal transition to an administration led by President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

Sigh …

This should have happened, oh, about two weeks ago when the networks determined that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump and denied Trump a second term as president. It should have begun right then. Right there. At that moment.

Instead, we have been force-fed a series of lawsuits, complaints, tweets and blustering about a “rigged election,” replete with attempts to disenfranchise millions of Americans who cast their ballots freely, fairly and without a hint of corruption.

Now he has ordered the GSA to begin a process that has been delayed for far too long? Give me a break!

Donald Trump has inflicted terrible damage on the image of this country around the world. He has conducted himself with absolute disrespect for the nation’s electoral process. Trump has sown discontent throughout the system and has brought scorn and embarrassment to our government.

Am I now going to offer any praise for him now just because his administration is doing what it should have done weeks ago? Not on your life!

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Walls close in on Trump era

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Michigan has certified the results of the 2020 presidential election in that state, granting President-elect Biden 16 electoral votes.

Is that the end of Donald Trump’s foolish, feckless and futile attempt to overturn the results of the election? Not … yet.

Oops. Wait! This just in: The Trump administration has ordered the General Services Administration to begin the transition to the new administration. Finally! More on that later.

It appears that Trump is running out of any sort of legal wiggle room. State and federal judges keep tossing his lawsuits out. A federal judge in Pennsylvania did so with extreme malice; what’s more that judge, a George W. Bush appointee — meaning he is of a Republican ilk — did so with remarkable harsh language. He asserted that Trump has failed to provide evidence of voter fraud, which rendered his complaint not worth the court’s time.

That’s how it is going for Trump as he continues his campaign against the sanctity of our electoral process.

Donald Trump is disgracing himself daily, if not hourly. He  tweets lie upon lie. Trump continues to cling to power as if he would shrivel up and die without it.

Oh, and meanwhile …

President-elect Biden is forming a government. He has selected someone to serve as secretary of state, as secretary of homeland security, as United Nations ambassador, as Treasury secretary, as director of national intelligence, as climate change envoy. What do they have in common? They are experienced hands. They know government. They have worked at the highest levels already. They are ready to serve the public under the Biden administration.

Many of these folks will need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

This is how it is supposed to go. Presidents get elected and they begin the search for competent, reliable and dedicated public servants to serve the nation they all love.

And the outgoing president instructs his staff to cooperate with the new team … and then steps aside.

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How would Trump cope with being stiffed by his predecessor?

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to inform you that we all are witnessing in real time why prior government experience matters during a presidential transition.

President-elect Joe Biden is assembling a government without an ounce of help from the man he defeated, Donald J. Trump. Has that stymied Biden’s effort to form a team he wants to take off from a dead stop when he assumes the office on Jan. 20? Hah! Not even …

I am wondering out loud how Donald Trump’s team would have fared had President Obama had sought to stiff the new president’s transition effort. Trump had zero government or public service experience when he won the 2016 election. He brought not a hint of understanding of politics and public policy when he took on the most powerful public office on Earth. Would he have proceeded the way Biden and his team have done? Hardly.

Joe Biden’s vast government experience, including his vast network of contacts, sources, friends, allies, partners gives him a huge advantage as he seeks to craft a government team.

Yes, folks, we are watching in real time the value that prior government and public service experience brings to an endeavor as huge as the one that Biden is undertaking.

I don’t expect it to go seamlessly without any help or assistance from the outgoing president’s team. Indeed, there’s still time for Donald Trump to snap to the reality that reportedly is dawning on his closest advisers … which is that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.

And that it is time for the outgoing president to make way for the new team.

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This drama will have a predictable ending

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Americans are witnessing an amazing dual-track drama being played out simultaneously by the winner and loser of the 2020 presidential campaign.

President-elect Joe Biden is proceeding as if everything’s hunky-dory with the result of the election. Indeed, it is in many of our minds. Biden has captured 279 electoral votes, enough to win the election; there will be more of them added to Biden’s total when the counting is completed. He has formed a coronavirus task force to begin working on possible solutions to the killer pandemic.

Biden meanwhile is looking at possible Cabinet appointees and other high-level staff positions in the White House.

Legal challenge? What legal challenge?

Meanwhile, Donald J. Trump is saying the election is “far from over.” He is mounting lawsuit upon lawsuit in courts across the land. He alleges the election was “stolen” from him by illegal voters. Proof? Evidence? There’s none to be found. Trump has failed to produce a shred of either. All he does is tweet out allegations with no basis in fact.

Adding to the chaos is that he fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper today, ending a lengthy feud that developed when Trump threatened to deploy active-duty military forces to put down protests of racial policy; Esper pushed back hard against that hare-brained and patently dangerous notion. Trump was enraged. Today he wacked the Pentagon boss. He’s gone.

I prefer to concentrate on the Biden approach to forming a new government. He is proceeding with all due diligence and care. He is getting his briefings on the pandemic and other national security issues. He knows how this goes. He’s been there before, having served for either productive years as VP in the Barack Obama administration.

This drama will end eventually. Trump will run out of legal challenges. Biden will continue apace to form a government. We’ll have a ceremony in Washington on Jan. 20. Biden will take the oath; whether Trump is present to witness it in person remains an open question … which, frankly, doesn’t concern me in the least.

Then the new president will go to work.

That’s how it is supposed to play out. Is this a great country, or what?

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Wary of transition prep

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at news that Joe Biden is hiring seasoned political hands to plan a transition from one presidency to another.

We are in the midst of a competitive presidential election contest. Biden is leading Donald Trump in most of those public opinion polls. So I guess it stands to reason that Biden would start thinking, um, strategically.

I say all of this with a knot in my gut. That old trick knee of mine is throbbing. I am getting the heebie-jeebies.

Of all the elections I have watched since I was old enough to know what they mean, none has piqued my desire more than this one. I want Joe Biden to defeat Donald Trump; I want Biden to beat Trump like a drum; I want there to be no doubt over the winner.  I want Trump to exit my White House and I want him to disappear from public view forever.

OK, I know that last thing is impossible. Trump won’t do anything of the sort.

However, when I read that Biden has hired former South Bend, Ind., mayor (and former Democratic Party primary presidential candidate) Pete Buttigieg, former acting U.S. attorney general Sally Yates and former national security adviser Susan Rice for his transition team, I get, um, nervous. Extremely nervous.

The backdrop of all this involves the dread I feel about the measures Trump well could employ to snap victory from the jaws of defeat down the stretch of this campaign, which is what he did in 2016. Can he do it again? Well, yeah … do ya think?

Then there’s also the threat that Trump would cheat to secure a victory. Is he capable of doing that, too? I believe he is fully capable of trying anything. Anything!

A Biden transition team is an important component to secure as early as possible. It all presumes that Joe Biden’s standing will hold up as the campaign hurtles toward the finish line.

Through it all my fear — and the prospect does frighten me — is that Trump will be able to replicate the stunner of a victory he pulled off four years ago.

Oh, how I want the next 58 days to speed by.

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Looking ahead to a brighter day

I like playing a mind game that enables me to look ahead to the short- or the medium-term future. I don’t have a name for it … but what the hey!

The game I am playing at the moment involves the moment when Donald Trump walks away from the presidency. It could happen Jan. 20, 2021 or (gulp!) on Jan. 20, 2025. Oh, how I want it to be the first date.

But still, Donald Trump has become — in addition to being the most unqualified, unfit and uninformed person ever elected president — a first-class, top-tier boor. His treatment of others has become almost legendary in its crassness.

So what might happen at the moment the new president takes over from Trump? The transition from one president to another is filled with niceties, photo opportunities, pro forma courtesies. Let’s assume for a moment that the new president will be Joseph R. Biden Jr., the 2020 Democratic nominee-in-waiting.

In a normal political environment, Joseph Biden and his wife, Jill, would go to the White House. The first couple, Donald and Melania Trump, would greet them. They would exchange some small talk, pose for pictures, then go inside for some more chatter, perhaps have a meal.

This campaign, though, will be far from “normal.” It will be as abnormal as it can get. Trump will sling epithets and baseless accusations at Biden. The former vice president will fire back with his own attacks. Trump won’t like the things Biden says about him and he’ll ratchet up the rhetoric.

How low it stoops is anyone’s guess.

Then there will be the inaugural ceremony. The new vice president and the president take their oaths of office, then the president — and I do hope it’s Biden — will begin his remarks. In a more genteel time, the new president would turn to the outgoing president and thank him for his service to the country. My favorite moment of that nature occurred in 1977 when President Carter turned to President Ford — whom he had defeated in a bruising campaign — and thanked “my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land” after Watergate.

It is difficult for me to believe we will witness any of that kind of dignity and decorum whenever Donald Trump’s time as president has expired. This individual has poisoned the atmosphere.

Ugh!

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How do ex-presidents cope with it all?

Try putting yourself into a spot that most of us — at least everyone within my sphere of friends and acquaintances — will never experience.

That would be transferring oneself instantaneously from being the most powerful human being on Earth to being just another ordinary guy.

My mind does tend to wander into strange places at times. This is one of them.

After the election of a new president, I try to transport myself into the shoes of the individual who goes from being Somebody to a relative Nobody. How does that feel? Is there a palpable, discernible sense of great weight being lifted from one’s shoulders? Is there a temptation to thumb one’s nose at the successor or offer a snarky “Take it away, pal”?

Or is there a temptation to worry oneself silly over this or that crisis?

Barack Obama might be feeling a little weird today as he continues his transition to husband, father, son-in-law, friend, next-door neighbor.

MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews — who in a previous life served as a speechwriter for President Carter and was on hand to watch his boss hand it over to President Reagan in 1981 — offered an observation the other day I found so very fascinating.

He said the Secret Service presidential detail keeps its eyes riveted on the commander in chief and his immediate surroundings at all times. On Inauguration Day, their attention shifts dramatically at the instant the chief justice of the Supreme Court says, “Congratulations, Mr. President” to the new head of state.

It’s a ritual repeated with utmost precision and without the slightest impact on the event that’s taking place. It happened this past Friday as Barack Obama passed the baton to Donald Trump.

We’ve been focused, quite naturally, on the new president’s activities — and the protests that have greeted his arrival on center stage.

For reasons, though, that have little to do with my affection for the most recent former president, I will hope he adjusts as smoothly to a “normal life” as he did when he became the focus of billions of us living on Planet Earth.

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Transition from Somebody to Nobody

I don’t spend a whole lot of time thinking about these things, but the thought has crossed my mind: What is it like for someone to transition from being the most powerful man in the world to, oh, just another Ordinary Joe?

That is what awaits Barack H. Obama, his wife Michelle and their daughters Malia and Sasha.

At noon Friday, President Obama becomes just another guy, a citizen who will get to drive his own car, open his own doors, sleep in if he wants and relax with his family.

He follows a tradition set by dozens of other men who’ve had the good fortune to survive their presidencies and transition to a new life … that resembles the way it used to be before they became the planet’s most powerful figure.

I don’t know how President Obama feels about all this. His body language, though, tells me he’s ready to get out of Dodge. He’ll fly to California on that big blue jet that’s called Air Force One when the president is on board. He’ll play some golf, eat some relaxing meals with his wife and daughters, read, write and relax.

It might be arguably a little more of an adjustment for Barack Obama than he’ll be willing to admit. You see, I’ve long noticed one thing about this president: From the very beginning of his two terms, he seemed to own the office he occupied.

Why do I say that? I was struck for eight years how he would use the first-person singular pronoun when referencing the government he led. He would mention “my national security team,” “my vice president,” “my attorney general.”

I once wrote that the government didn’t belong to the president. It belongs to us — you and me. The president merely is our hired hand elected to the job by virtue of getting more electoral votes than anyone else.

In just a few hours, the 44th president will surrender that immense power to the 45th president. Then he becomes an average guy — so to speak.

Barack Obama is likely to prove me wrong by adjusting just fine to his new life. At least I hope he does.

Well done, Mr. President.