"It’s Not a Pretty Sight"

"Hoover determined to exploit this interim to salvage his presidency. No sooner had the ballots been counted than he invited Governor Roosevelt to confer with him. The overture gave every appearance of being an exceptionally generous offer to share power with the man who had vanquished him. In fact, it was the first step of a scheme to undo the results of the election. Hoover acted, the historian Frank Freidel later wrote, 'as though he felt it was his duty to save the nation, indeed the world, from the folly of the American voters.'"

William E. Leuchtenburg in The New York Times warns President-Elect Barack Obama about becoming too close to the lame-duck George W. Bush.