I like to imagine that Voight wrote this for the Romney inaugural in 2012, put it in a drawer, and then reworked a few lines for today. What can I say? We all cope with this alternate reality we’ve entered in our own way.

Consider this an hors d’oeuvre to whet your appetite for tomorrow, as the last few minutes of the Obama administration mercifully tick away. Trump did a smart thing, I think, by asking a bunch of top deputies at federal agencies to stay on during his administration, at least for the first few months as his new appointees get up to speed. He has “beachhead teams” ready to go in various departments tomorrow at 12:01 to keep the government running, but “beachhead teams” by design are temporary fixtures while permanent nominees await confirmation. Having some holdovers from the Obama administration on hand to guide them will make the transition easier, I’m sure.

An unanswered question: How many holdovers were asked to stay because Team Trump wanted them and how many were asked because Team Trump needed them? This CNN report suggests an unusually urgent need for continuity.

Staffers at the most senior levels, including in the White House and at federal agencies, have met with their incoming counterparts. Deeper into the hierarchy, however, there’s been little contact between the staffers currently operating the levers of government and the team who takes over when President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in at noon on January 20.

“I don’t think they are ready for prime-time,” said a longtime Obama administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe concerns about the state of the transition.

“They are not ready,” said a Republican who is close to Trump’s transition…

“People running major offices in the White House currently have had no contact with their successors,” said one person who attended [a recent White House] function. “It is stunning. And we always kept thinking they’re going to have a plan, they’re going to come through at the last minute. We’re less than 48 hours away. This should be concerning to anyone.”

Right, I know — “CNN is fake news!” — but Politico’s hearing some of the same things and they claim interviews with more than two dozen Trump and Obama administration officials, lobbyists, etc, as sources. I assume that the administrative speed bumps will be mostly invisible to the public, though. So thick is the federal bureaucracy that something truly earth-shaking would need to happen to penetrate its walls and make any dysfunction in turnover apparent to the public. It’ll all work out. Lincoln is smiling!