"Through history, transitioning political power has usually been bloody [and] involved great social upheaval, destruction of property and personal uncertainty," said Daniel Heimbach, a Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor who served in the George H.W. Bush administration. "And those who lose power have usually been killed, banished or at least ostracized.

"The exceptional achievement and enormous blessing of transitioning power in the American governing system has been to do so without bloodshed, recrimination, banishment, destruction of property or social division," said Heimbach, who began his service to Bush as deputy ...