The Sunday morning talk shows - that long-standing ritual of American news junkies - delivered a slightly surreal sight this past weekend.
On Fox, US President George W. Bush was giving the latest of what has become a seemingly endless stream of exit interviews. He was relaxed, smug and clearly not plagued by self-doubt as his eight years in power draw to a close. There was a little wistfulness as he reflected on what leaving the White House for the last time is going to feel like. There was no sense of responsibility for the many messes he leaves behind - mainly because he appears to believe that he has nothing in particular to apologise for.
Over on ABC, the scene was very different. US President-elect Barack Obama was serious, even grave. As he had done for most of the last week, he worked hard to project confidence while refusing to sugar-coat reality. We're all in this together, he seemed to say; and working together is how we will get through the crisis.
It is inevitable that during these closing days of the long American political transition, power and attention should pass from the departing president to the new man entering the White House. The process, however, seems more dramatic this time.
Normally, a president finishing out his second term spends these final days waxing nostalgic and reveling one last time in the perks of the office. Even if the rest of the country is eager to see him go, the soon-to-be-ex-president can usually count on a decent-sized core of supporters to help him indulge in a few weeks of self-congratulation.
Not so Bush. Largely abandoned by his own party during the presidential campaign, he has been pretty thoroughly ignored ever since the votes were counted. Far from giving him the traditional victory lap even the people who are supposed to be Bush's supporters have mainly seemed eager to see him go. Even people who don't support Obama already find him a more compelling figure than the man he is set to replace.
Interviews and speeches
What has come through in Obama's interviews and speeches over the past few weeks is a sense that he stands on the edge of a truly extraordinary moment. In that ABC interview last Sunday he spoke of a "grand bargain" to remake the US healthcare system from the ground up, albeit in stages. He knows that the economic crisis confronts him with frightening challenges, but also offers him the opportunity to innovate to a degree the country has not seen in more than 75 years. How much, if any, of this will prove to be possible only time will tell.
In the midst of this Obama may, to some, seem to have slighted issues the rest of the world would like to see addressed quickly and dramatically, notably in the Middle East. He has been criticised, in particular, for remaining largely silent regarding the violence that has consumed Gaza over the past more than two weeks.
Puzzling as it may seem, this reticence has actually made a lot of sense.
During the campaign Senator Joe Biden (soon to be vice-president) was roundly criticised for predicting that soon after taking office, Obama would be tested by a foreign crisis. The Republicans sought to spin this as proof that even Biden thought Obama unprepared for the presidency. In reality it was little more than a statement of the obvious: go back through American history and you'll find that the Unforeseen Foreign Crisis is a staple of every modern president's first year in office.
So while many in the Arab world wonder why the president-elect has thus far remained silent over Gaza, consider this: for the next four years he is going to be forced to react more-or-less immediately to crisis after crisis. Bush may have little credibility or relevance left at this point but he remains, technically speaking, the President and, as Obama keeps reminding everyone, we have only one president at a time. Obama, for all his influence and authority is still, technically speaking, a private citizen.
That means that, for now, he can be deliberative, careful and thoughtful on his own schedule. Surely, this is a good thing. Has not much of the Middle East long pined for a US president who thought things through before acting? The calendar having given him the soon-to-be-unthinkable luxury of time to reflect, one can hardly blame Obama for wanting to seize that opportunity while he can.
Gordon Robison is a writer and commentator based in Burlington, Vermont. He has lived in and reported on the Middle East for two decades.
