The overarching story line the media is trying to sell us about Donald Trump’s transition is that the entire process is beset with backbiting (that means it is a day ending in ‘y’ in Washington, DC) that it is rudderless and that it is a Chernobyl of #FAIL.

When one looks at recent administrations, though, one finds that the Trump transition compares very favorably to other. This via NPR, yes, that NPR:

Despite reports of disarray on President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, it doesn’t appear to have slowed the process of filling key positions. Trump has announced his picks for chief of staff, national security adviser, and his first cabinet secretary as fast or faster than many of his recent predecessors.

As you can see, the only transitions that have moved faster than Trump are both Bush administrations. Bush (41) was a serving vice president and he was running against Michael Dukakis. So not only did he have unfettered access to the Executive Branch, he also knew he was going to win very early. The timeline for Bush (43) looks so good because the start date is December 13, the date when the silly Al Gore inspired judicial coup was repudiated. To put them all on the same timeline, George Bush’s first appointment would have been on Day 17.

In fact, this is well known to anyone vaguely familiar with previous transitions. Take, for instance, this Twitter exchange between Clinton adviser David Axelrod and some not-terribly-bright leftwing wacko in Virginia:

Lots of reasons to be concerned about @realDonaldTrump transition but the pace of announcements isn't one of them. That's not a fair shot.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 17, 2016

@davidaxelrod @realDonaldTrump You've completely jumped the shark. Can you imagine if this were Obama, what the GOP would be saying???

— lowkell (@lowkell) November 17, 2016

We hadn't made any major appointments at this point in 2008. I don't remember being criticized for it. https://t.co/3yXvA8g6bL

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) November 17, 2016

Every transition is filled with a certain degree of chaos and infighting. You have strong personalities in search of powerful positions competing. Someone is going to lose out and 9 out of 10 times they take their arguments to the press (for instance, you can date much of the sniveling about the Trump transition from the day Mike Pence booted Trent Lott and his battalion of bloodsucking leeches from the transition). Unlike a parliamentary system, a US president has less than 75 days to identify and vet the top ranks of the executive branch. But Trump’s transition is moving no slower than that of his predecessors. There will be time enough later to criticize him for real failures and this is not one of them… yet.
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