I've been relatively silent on my blog lately. Not because of lack of something to say, but rather, simply lack of time. I have a couple of big deliverables this week, so I may finally have some breathing room this coming weekend.

In the meantime, though, I find it necessary to comment on an event that happened earlier this day. While I still have many thoughts I want to share about our new President, and the politics surrounding his election, and so on, the transition of power today bears particular attention.

I have commented many times before on this blog, and elsewhere, that I have had differences of opinion with the previous administration. And while I have been less obvious about it on this blog, I must also take exception to the notion that our previous President is the "worst ever." Not even by a long shot. (That's a very rich topic for another day.) Most people who make such a claim have obviously not studied their American history all that closely.

But I find it remarkable that, on his way out of office, President George W. Bush left with grace and dignity. No last minute flurry of questionable pardons. No last minute theatrics or grandstanding. Granted, there were a couple last minute Presidential Executive Orders worthy of reconsideration. But, all in all, George W. Bush left the White House today with an important distinction.

George W. Bush turned over the reigns of governmental power in a peaceful, orderly fashion. Our constitutional government, for all of its many, many flaws, remains in tact and, despite a change in leadership, stable and predictable. "Distinction?" You ask. "It's been done 42 times before."

Yes, it's been done 42 times before. Well, actually, more like 41 times before, since Buchanan did an awful job of turning over the government to Lincoln. Truly awful. But, that notwithstanding, each successive transition of executive power is for the record books. Our republic persists, which is more than can be said of so many other governments throughout the world and throughout history. And, for all it's flaws, there remains the very real hope that *many* of our nation's problems can and will be eventually corrected... without undue damage to the republic as a whole. We have managed, against so many odds, to perpetuate a system of government that is not only somewhat reasonable and fair, but also nominally self-correcting and self-healing. It's truly amazing. The proverbial "machine that would go of itself" still works.

I have no reason, yet, to laud our new President. Nor have I reason, yet, to censure him. But I am nonetheless glad that we have a new President. For all that, nothing so became George W. Bush's Presidency as the leaving of it.