2. Get Busy
Transitions have become closely covered mini-presidencies — active periods in which Presidents-elect continually remind voters they are on the case, if not exactly on the job yet. They have become a time to mend fences, roll out new Cabinet officials and tend the fires of change — all in a kind of step-by-step, 10-week forced march until the swearing in. But even if transitions are now mini-endurance tests, they can be effective: Bill Clinton held a dramatic two-day workshop in Little Rock, Ark., on economics during his transition in 1992, in part because he was about to change course dramatically on many of his economic promises. The summit did two things: it gave Clinton a measure of cover for his U-turns and, more importantly, it reminded voters that a new team was just around the corner.