Writing at Balkanization, Sandy Levinson has this post using the television show “West Wing’ to demonstrate “the way that we are disserved by a system that allows a true lame-duck [President] to make very important decisions that can well prove albatrosses around their successors necks.” He advocates that we “become like almost all other serious countries in the world and devise an election-inauguration process that limited the length of the hiatus.”
In theory, Sandy is surely right. But in practice, I would worry that shortening the time between election and inauguration would increase the chances of social instability caused by failure to fully resolve a close presidential election. Until our voting mechanics and voting laws are in order, the more time between the two events, the safer we are from electoral meltdown leading to social instability. (More on that here.)