Daunting challenges await an Obama administration

Economy, war point to short honeymoon

Outside the White House in Washington yesterday, workers constructed a viewing stand to be used at the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama in January. (Karen Bleier/ AFP/ Getty Images)

CHICAGO - Winning might have been the easy part.

For all the euphoria that filled this city and much of the nation when Senator Barack Obama won his historic victory on Tuesday, the president-elect now turns to confront a sobering array of challenges as daunting as any incoming leader has faced in decades.

"We have a bad economy, we have a huge debt, we've got an unpopular war," said James A. Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. "He's inheriting all that."

Some analysts believe Obama's task is on par with that of Franklin Roosevelt, who in 1933 took the reins of a nation mired in the Great Depression. Obama himself said Monday night, at his last rally of the campaign, that the 44th president would be "facing bigger challenges than probably any administration since FDR."

So where does he start?

In the immediate term, Obama will focus on building his administration, with the help of a transition team led by John Podesta, who was a chief-of-staff for former president Bill Clinton; Valerie Jarrett, a longtime close friend and adviser from Chicago; and Pete Rouse, Obama's well connected Senate chief of staff. Obama has already offered the job of White House chief of staff to hard-charging fellow Illinoisan Rahm Emanuel, a top member of the House who held a senior position in the Clinton White House.

Aides said that Obama, who did not make a public statement yesterday, would remain in Chicago through the end of the week, but that his mind is very much already on Washington. Today, 75 days before he is to be inaugurated the 44th president, he is to begin receiving classified intelligence briefings from the Central Intelligence Agency.

Given the likelihood of a sustained economic recession, Obama acknowledges concern about how to make good on his sweeping campaign promises to invest in a series of domestic initiatives.

"When I think about things when the lights are out and I'm tossing and turning in bed, it's how do we make sure we fulfill the commitments to the American people that we've made throughout this campaign," he told ABC News Radio on Monday.

Obama has said his top domestic priority will be stabilizing the troubled financial system, and, as part of that effort, implementing a tax cut for 95 percent of American workers.

"That may be the first bill that I introduce," he told CNN last week.

In the CNN interview, Obama also cited as leading priorities for his new administration new investments in the renewable energy industry, which he said could create as many as 5 million new jobs, and making progress on his vow to bring near universal healthcare coverage by the end of his first term.

Michael Franc, vice president of government relations at the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think tank, added entitlement spending as another major challenge for the president-elect, saying Obama will preside over the first Baby Boomers becoming eligible for Medicare in 2011.

"The rubber is about to hit the road on this big issue, and most lawmakers and elected officials just don't like to talk about it," Franc said. "That's the role of the president."

With a few exceptions, Obama has been careful to not to commit to specific timetables. Even on issues where he has, such as Iraq - he has said he wants most American combat troops out in 16 months - Obama leaves himself some wiggle room. He said on CNN that the money the United States is spending there each month - the main thrust of his critique of the war - would not be reallocated immediately.

"We're not going to be able to take that $12 billion and suddenly automatically apply it all to domestic stuff," he said. "We've got to take care of our troops. And we're still going to have expenditures in Afghanistan, because we need to hunt down [Osama] bin Laden and Al Qaeda and put them finally out of business."

In the foreign policy arena, the challenges Obama will face are clear. Beyond finding a way to end the war in Iraq, he must contend with Russia, which is asserting its power in ways reminiscent of the Soviet Union during the Cold War; with new leadership in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed country whose government is under threat from Islamic extremists; with the ongoing nuclear designs of Iran; and with a potential leadership vacuum in reclusive North Korea.

Thurber also cited a Nov. 15 emergency global economic summit in Washington, where he said leaders from around the world will want to hear Obama's plans for solving the financial crisis.

"He really doesn't have a long honeymoon," Thurber said.

As Obama begins trying to govern, Franc said, he would be wise to avoid the mistakes of past Democratic administrations by immediately establishing a collaborative relationship with Congress. Franc said he would encourage Obama to emphasize his centrist views, to show conservative Democrats and Republicans that he is not the ideologically rigid liberal that Senator John McCain said he was.

"To the extent that he can reach out and say, 'Hey, you guys don't have anything to be afraid of,' that sends signals that would allow the temperature to come down a little in certain quarters," Franc said.

Obama already sought to send those signals in Tuesday night's victory speech, calling for Democrats to lead "with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress."

Policy and politics aside, Washington will be gripped in the coming weeks by speculation over whom Obama will name to his administration to help him navigate all these challenges.

Dozens of names have already been floated as possible appointees in an Obama administration, including Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Senator Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, as candidates for secretary of state; Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as a potential head of the Environmental Protection Agency; and Susan Rice, a State Department official under Clinton and an Obama foreign policy adviser, who may get a top diplomatic portfolio.

With supporters on a high from his commanding win, Obama has already begun lowering expectations for his presidency, mindful of the sweeping changes he has campaigned on for the better part of two years.

"We may not get there in one year or even in one term," he said in a sober tone to the rapturous crowd Tuesday night. "But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com