Shorter Lame Duck Period for Outgoing President Helps Smooth Changeover

The Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2017, will make Donald J. Trump the 45^th president of the United States. Michael R. Pence will be his vice president.

This will be the 58^th U.S. Presidential swearing-in. The time between the November election and the inauguration of a new president is called the incumbent’s Lame Duck period. Until the mid-1930’s, the incoming president waited nearly four months before he replaced the outgoing president.

The last president to wait nearly four months to get sworn in was Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 4, 1933, when he replaced Herbert C. Hoover, a one-term president.

During Roosevelt’s first administration the U.S. Congress passed the 20th Constitutional Amendment that changed the time of the Inauguration to the 20^th day of January. This shortened the Lame Duck period by six weeks.   Roosevelt started his second term in January in accordance to the new amendment.

An extended presidential transition period of almost four months made sense during the country’s first 150 years of elections when mass communications and fast transportation methods didn’t exist.

But the first part of the 20^th Century brought radio and television news into the homes of most Americans. Improved roads to accommodate the growing number of motor vehicles used privately and commercially made travel time easier and faster. Commercial air travel made coast-to-coast and even international travel practical. These modern advances showed the need to shorten the time needed to install a new administration.

Evidence that the country needed her new leader to take charge quicker after the election became evident when President Elect Roosevelt and incumbent Hoover struggled to change the country’s top executive. Both men wanted to solve the country’s economic problems. A Wall Street crash that started in May, 1929 set the country into the Great Depression. Hoover’s attempt to allow the economy to correct itself failed, and more than 25% of the population suffered unemployment.

Roosevelt campaigned with a philosophy that promoted his New Deal—a set of government programs that created jobs to get the population working. He campaigned with his plans to bring relief, recovery and reform to the unemployed population. Roosevelt encouraged the growth of labor unions and close regulations of business and national banks.

Hoover’s political stance promoted an economy based on voluntarism that encouraged individualism and self-reliance. He emphatically warned that Roosevelt’s plans would push the U.S. towards Communism with its strong governmental controls.

Hoover’s administration didn’t improve the economy fast enough to satisfy the citizenship. Roosevelt dominated the 1932 election with 472 electoral votes compared to Hoover’s 59 votes. The popular votes totaled 57% for Roosevelt (Democratic Party) and 39.6% for Hoover (Republican Party). 

President Elect Roosevelt met with Hoover at the White House at least three times during the Lame Duck period. The two men didn’t agree on most things that would help bring the country out of the poor economy. The discussions became more and more contentious, and they accomplished nothing to help the citizens who needed relief from the depression.

It was a time of leaderless government. The U.S. economy ground to a halt as thousands of banks failed. The country’s economy needed leadership to move it in an improved direction during the Lame Duck period, but both men refused to do anything that would make the other look good.

Hoover and Roosevelt
riding to Roosevelt's inauguration

Historians reported that their mutual dislike grew to the point that they wouldn’t speak to each other when they rode side-by-side in the back seat of an opened convertible that carried them down Pennsylvania Ave. to Roosevelt’s swearing-in.

Recent decades show the passage between old and new presidential administrations usually goes smoothly with a cordial air between the two parties. A professional changeover between the outgoing and incoming presidents coupled with a shorter Lame Duck period help the country’s citizens get the best from a major management change in the executive office.  Come back to this space later this month to read another interesting blog.