President George W. Bush is leaving office with some of the lowest job-approval ratings in history. He's being assailed by both of his would-be successors, one of whom will inherit two wars and the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, Bush is engineering what may be the most carefully considered and potentially successful presidential transition in modern times, both Democrats and Republicans close to the process say.
The president started the preparations last spring, ordering federal agencies to get ready for a new administration, with deadlines for various tasks. By August, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten had persuaded representatives of Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama to join in. The advance work may get the new president off to a fast start, participants say.
``I do feel pretty good about this one,'' says Harrison Wellford, a former White House and congressional aide who has worked on presidential transitions since Jimmy Carter's back in 1976 and is now advising Obama. ``The White House and the agencies are doing a good job, learning from mistakes of the past.''
That planning, Wellford says, will better prepare the president-elect for the ``onrushing freight train of decisions,'' including making some 2,000 appointments.
The imperatives of a seamless transfer of power have seldom if ever been greater.
``This is probably the most important transition we've seen in the modern presidency,'' says John P. Burke, a University of Vermont political scientist who has written books about presidential changeovers. ``We're not dealing with a normal transition, but a very extraordinary set of circumstances.''
Since the crisis erupted, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has conferred numerous times with McCain and Obama. The administration is making sure each side receives ``religiously equal'' amounts of time, even simultaneously including representatives from both campaigns in some briefings, says Clay Johnson III, a White House official supervising the planning.
Top officials at the Treasury Department have signaled to both campaigns that they will work to bring on board -- even before Jan. 20 -- a replacement for Neel Kashkari as chief of the department's financial-rescue plan, according to Treasury spokeswoman Brookly McLaughlin.
Last month, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said Bush should even consider nominating his successor's choice for Treasury secretary to reassure investors and consumers.
Bush plans to convene a Cabinet meeting early this month to receive agency-by-agency updates on their readiness, says Johnson, now deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. He says the 44th president will be ``better prepared than any prior administration.''
Johnson has experience being on the other side of the fence. In the spring of 1999, months before then-Texas Governor Bush declared his presidential candidacy, Johnson began preparing for his possible assumption of power.
Academics credit that advance planning for Bush's well- orchestrated transition in 2000-2001 despite the 37-day struggle over the election outcome that halved the official changeover period.
The Bush administration started off strong largely because of Andrew Card, Burke says. Card was designated Bush's contingency White House chief of staff on election night 2000 and ``put together the White House staff while everybody was focusing on Florida,'' Burke says.
(Source: Bloomberg)