WASHINGTON - America has never seen anything quite like this: The president and president-elect acting like co-presidents, consulting and cooperating on the day’s biggest crises. ‘It’s pretty unusual,’ said George Edwards, a presidential expert at Texas A&M University, in College Station. What Princeton University professor Julian Zelizer calls ‘the split-screen presidency’ is the result of several historic forces converging this fall: * The 24-7 nature of the global economy, which demands timely reaction. * Incoming and outgoing presidents who have personal and political reasons to show that they can manage a crisis. * A president-elect, Barack Obama, who ‘believes in strong government and wants to get things under way immediately,’ said William Leuchtenburg, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor who’s written extensively about the presidency. * A lame-duck president, George W. Bush, who’s leaving office voluntarily. ‘Bush was not defeated. That makes for an easier relationship,’ Leutchtenburg said. This transition lacks the formality - and the coolness - of the last two transfers of power that occurred during tough economic times, the 1980-81 change […]