Vacuum in White House

Vacuum in White House
| Mon, 12/22/2008
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/12/22/letter-vacuum-white-house.html

I have always wondered why the U.S. president elect in the world's most powerful democracy must wait nearly 75 days before taking over as president.
Elected on the first Tuesday of November every 4 years, the president elect is made to wait until Jan. 20 -- a period where the United States goes virtually without a leader.
Conversely, the prime minister of the world's most populous democracy (India) must take over immediately on being elected by the MPs!
My U.S. friends told me this practice is a 200-year-old tradition since the counting of votes -- both popular and electoral -- used to be carried on horseback from the 13 far-flung original states to Washington D.C..
In fact, until recently, the president elect would not take over until March, not January!
Why should this practice continue now that electronic voting can announce the new president by late evening the same day as the polls?
Even in very close elections like the Bush vs. Gore, Nixon vs. Humphrey, or JFK vs. Nixon, the moment the counting concludes and a winner is declared, he should take over immediately.
With 75 days available, Parkinson's First Law (work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion) applies, and the process of the formation of the cabinet rolls on and on!
The stark need of a newly empowered leader to take over immediately was never felt more than now when there is a vast national need for reassurance. The president himself was a cipher to quote Joe Klein of TIME in its 8th December issue!
The expectations of president-elect Barack Obama rose steeply due to the current serious financial meltdown. When Americans (and people in other nations) looked to him for deliverance, he had to declare, "there is only one President of the United States until January 20, 2009, and he is President Bush."
With Bush becoming the lamest-duck-president and Obama yet to be sworn in, the United States is facing a serious leadership vacuum.
The United States will hopefully make a necessary constitutional amendment in this regard.
K.B. KALE, Jakarta