This agreement between parties, perhaps, was attributable to the fact that there would be a presidential transition occurring in the year 1988, since President Reagan was term-limited.

[7] There had also been an unsuccessful effort to altogether stop president-elects from accepting private contributions to help fund their transitions, a bill for which was approved in the United States House of Representatives on March 31, 1988.

[13] In January 1988, Bush privately selected Chase Untermeyer to lead the pre-election planning of his potential presidential transition.

[2] This included having his director of President Personnel meet with Untermeyer for discussions, and having his White House chief of staff, Kenneth Duberstein, prepare a checklist for the transition team of whichever candidate would win the election.

[14] This would be indicative of the rest of the transition, where Bush largely relied on close advisors and political allies he had become acquainted with over his career to lead the effort.

[3] Bush also named Chase Untermeyer as its personnel director, and pledged "major turnover" in order to "reinvigorate" the government.

[17] On November 22, 1988, Duberstein requested that both Cabinet members and agency heads provide information to the transition team pertaining to organizational matters, goals and functions, resource descriptions, congressional oversight committees, regulatory programs, and other important matters of relevance to each agency.

[18] On December 7, Bush joined Reagan for the Governors Island Summit with Soviet Union general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

[19] Reagan is credited with, during this transition, having begun a tradition of presidents leaving a handwritten note in the Oval Office for their successors.

[4] Nine days after winning the election, Bush chose John H. Sununu to serve as his White House chief of staff.

According to these reports, both Fuller and Teeter were opposed to the choice of Sununu, and this would be the reason that neither of them chose to join Bush's presidential administration after the transition.

[2] The transition was marred by confusion among incumbents holders of appointed offices as to whether they could expect to retain their positions into the Bush administration.

[1][22] Reagan's White House chief of staff, Kenneth Duberstein, would later recount having to have uncomfortable conversations with individuals to persuade them to tender their resignations.

[23] For instance, his pick for secretary of health and human services, Louis Wade Sullivan, encountered some resistance from "pro-life" conservatives because of his previously stated stance on abortion.

[23][27] John Tower, Bush's selection for secretary of defense, would later attract tremendous controversy during his United States Senate confirmation process in the early days of Bush's presidency, ultimately becoming the first Cabinet nominee formally rejected in a U.S. Senate vote in 30 years, and the most recent one.