January's transition in Oval Office occupants opens up a national security gap for America's enemies to exploit, Jamie Gorelick and Slade Gorton write in the New York Times. The handover from Clinton to Bush was deeply flawed, the 9/11 Commission members note, with "no effective dialog" between the two. To avoid a repeat, the current nominees should get much more information that they're not being given.
"To be ready to make the crucial decisions next Jan. 20—and to take sensible positions in the debate about our national security in 2008—both candidates should be given full access, not just to the daily intelligence brief but to all the sensitive programs that we have in place to protect this nation," Gorelick and Gorton write. They should also be given full resources to vet security cabinets before November, they add. "It might even result in better decisions in the early weeks and months of the next presidency." (More president stories.)