Talk:Resignations after the 2004 US presidential elections

Please add to this article any other resignations in after the 2004 US presidential elections. --Jpkoester1 19:23, Nov 30, 2004 (UTC)

This article should be merged with George W. Bush's first term as president of the United States#Post-election as most of this information can already be found there as well as at United States Cabinet#Current Cabinet. Merge date ought to be 20 Jan 05 since that is inauguration day and additions after that would be a matter of Bush's second term . MPS 20:58, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Agree. This ought to be merged - doesn't really merit its own article. Laguna72 22:34, 30 Nov 2004 (UTC)

When I wrote the article I was under the impression that resignation of almost half the cabinet was somewhat unusual (even considering that there had just been an election) and might be a sign of a certain level of diverging political points of view among the cabinet. Also I was under the impression that there was an unusually high number of resignations of other US-officials during the last few weeks/months (which IMO also supports this impression of diverging opinions).
In Germany (where I am from) resignations are usually a sign of failure or misconsent and are not usually used in a restructuring of the cabinet or replacing other officials.
Those were the primary reasons why I thought that this subject might merit its own article. If my assessment of the situation was right I think the article should be expanded to include reasons for the resignations (would need some help for that). If however you tell me I'm totaly wrong in that assesment and these resignations are perfectly normal in the US-political system I agree to merging this article. So plese go ahead and let me know. --Jpkoester1 00:53, Dec 1, 2004 (UTC)

Such a resignation is not unusual in the turn-over between two presidential terms. Previous presidents have gone so far as to mandate the complete resignation of all members of the cabinet and a reappointment of those he choses to keep. The most publicized divisions within the cabinet were those over the road to war in Iraq, which basically ended up being a feud between Powell and Rumsfeld / Wolfowitz. 'Failure,' in that context, would not be publically mentioned in this administration (which seems to have a complete inability to acknowledge any shortcomings it may have). The president will stick by his former cabinet officers, and in general (Paul O'Neill seems an exception) they will stick by their president. That's not to say that discontent doesn't exist, but it certainly (in these cases, at least) won't be published beyond the general comments about Powell's dissapointment with the way the administration went to war. Any reasoning as to the impetus for the resignations included in the article would be pure speculation - with a possible exception in Powell's case: he has said in the past that he only intended to serve one term.

In the end, this may end up being a slightly higher-than-average turn-over for a second term transition, but it's definitely not uncommon in the American political system, and not unexpected with this administration. For these reasons, I maintain that this ought to be merged with George W. Bush's first term as president of the United States#Post-election for turn-overs up to 20 January 2005, when his second term begins. Laguna72 05:51, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC)

George W. Bush's first term as president of the United States#Post-election covers the topic adequitely now, this article has been directed to redirect to that subarticle. Laguna72 19:10, 2 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Seems like the redirect isn't working properly (at least I think it's supposed to open the correct article direclty which it doesn't - at least for me). Not sure how to fix it though. --Jpkoester1 21:38, Dec 2, 2004 (UTC)