i think that's the biggest deal. if Hart's retirement had not been announced 9 months ago..., and say was announced in March, and then later that month we hired Fulmer, Blackburn, Morrison or whoever, the transition would have been viewed as seamless.
they allowed this appearance of ineptitude to fester by making it all public way back when, now they have to produce answers, and speculation runs rampant.
again, it still all goes back to leadership. why/how no one saw any of this coming a year ago, at least as a potential reaction, is beyond me.
the whole thing is just dumb. they've allowed this debate over fulmer and blackburn to grow to a place it had no business getting to, and they could have prevented by simply saying "Dave, we accept your resignation, and congratulate you on your pending retirement, however, we won't announce this until after the Chancellor is in place, and in office, sometime late Feb, early March 2017".