I have a feeling it's a holdover from when travel times were much, much longer. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4182559.stm for the history of the whole thing. :) (Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inauguration_Day.) And re Clinton: His administration spent a huge amount of time trying to tell the W administration that there was this terrorist group called Al Qaeda that was planning a big hit on multiple US targets... and didn't get listened to. Also, they left the W administration a budget surplus and a good economy.