the support of Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman, who said, "I happen to think (McCain) is the best of all candidates to unite our country across political lines so we can begin to solve some of the problems people have." Transition planning A presidential transition was contingently planned from President Bush to McCain. McCain's transition planning started, very low key, even before the Republican National Convention. Early on, six people from McCain's presidential campaign staff were handling transition concerns. These were William L. Ball, Rick Davis, Russ Gerson, John Lehman, Trevor Potter, and William Timmons. The Bush administration began working with both the teams of McCain and Barack Obama regarding their potential transitions as early as the summer of 2008. In the summer of 2008, representatives of the McCain and Obama campaigns had a joint meeting with officials from the United States Department of Justice to discuss transition resources. In the first half of September, McCain officially appointed William Timmons as his transition chief. Timmons was a former senior adviser to Vice President George H. W. Bush in 1988, an advisor to Senator Bob Dole in 1996, the founder and chairman emeritus of lobbying firm Timmons and Company, and a former lobbyist for Freddie Mac. He had been involved in the presidential transitions of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Leading the transition planning effort alongside Timmons was John Lehman. Also involved in leading the effort was William L. Ball. McCain's transition planners worked out of his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. By late-October, both the Obama and McCain camps had requested that the Bush administration quickly grant security clearances to key members of their transition teams. McCain's transition team was much smaller, and had a less formal structure, than Obama's. By late October, McCain's transition efforts were far behind those of Obama. However, Obama's transition efforts were seen as being well ahead of any past transition effort. Amid his campaign's downturn at the time, McCain had ordered his transition team to limit their activities. McCain took the opportunity to criticize Obama for being presumptuous with his heavier transition planning, declaring, "Senator Obama is measuring the drapes." However, there was criticism that McCain was doing too little in regards to his transition planning. Lehman, as part of the 9/11 Commission, had, in the past, expressed strong concerns over the national security threat that slow transitions can be. However, McCain was concerned