The Note: Obama Makes Economy Task No. 1
EmailABC News’ Rick Klein reports in Friday’s Note:
Congratulations, Mr. President-Elect. You’re the proud owner of one national economy. It’s huge, lumbering, ornery, quite old, and sometimes unstable. It’s on a special diet now — but the doctors can’t be sure if it will help.
Your constituents are beginning to hate it, but they really want to love it again. If they’re going to love you, it’s going to start here.
He’s not technically president until Jan. 20. But the Obama presidency really starts Friday, when Sen. Barack Obama begins to take ownership of the issue that did so much to get him elected.
He and Sen. Joe Biden are huddling with their economic team in Chicago — the group charged with turning things around (maybe one of whom will be the new Treasury secretary) — and then the president-elect holds his first press conference since the election, at 2:30 pm ET.
With auto leaders on the Hill asking for their own bailout, talk of a new stimulus package even before President Bush joins the ranks of the unemployed, and new (dismal) jobs numbers coming Friday, a nation jittery from watching the Dow is looking for presidential leadership.
Read the rest of The Note — and get all the latest on the 2008 election, Congress, the White House and the wide world of politics every day — from Rick Klein by bookmarking this link.
And now comes the first real acknowledgement that all of this — everything voters poured into this vessel called Barack Obama on Tuesday — takes time and patience. Be careful what you wish for — and that goes both ways.
“In responding, Mr. Obama must strike a delicate balance between cooperating with an unpopular president whose policies he campaigned to change, and the inclination to wait until he takes charge in two and a half months to prescribe his own remedies,” Jeff Zeleny and Jackie Calmes write in The New York Times. “No incoming president in modern times has been so pressured to begin governing, in effect, before he is sworn into office.”
Just like he imagined it would be? “The new president will probably spend his first year in office careering from crisis to crisis, throwing lifelines to hard-hit households, local governments, industries and developing countries. The job will feel a lot less like that of a ship’s captain and a lot more like that of a triage nurse,” Steven Pearlstein writes in his Washington Post column. “He will need to make clear that though he intends to pursue the broad agenda he laid out during the campaign, the timing and details — many of which were laid out more than a year ago — may need to be adjusted in light of dramatically changed circumstances.”
Yes, the nation wants a president again — but don’t forget that this one is still a senator for another two months.
“Obama is expected to lead a discussion about the nation’s troubling job losses and possible remedies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) has expressed support for passing a stimulus package in a lame-duck session of Congress. Obama’s team does not appear to have reached consensus on that approach,” the Los Angeles Times’ Peter Nicholas and Michael Finnegan write.
“One Obama advisor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that it may be preferable to wait until the new president is sworn in before passing a stimulus package. ‘Wait until the new president and the new team can put together a package that becomes a down payment on a broader investment agenda,’ the advisor said. ‘That would be my preference.’ ”
Obama’s first dance with Congress could come before the Inaugural Ball: “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for a two-stage effort to boost the shaky U.S. economy: a $60 billion-to-$100 billion stimulus package this month, followed early next year by a companion measure that would include a ‘permanent tax cut,’ ” Greg Hitt and Jonathan Weisman write in The Wall Street Journal.
Continue reading today’s Note by clicking HERE.
ABC News’ Arnab Datta contributed to this report.
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As long as President 0bama gives us the $1000 that he said he would give us if we voted for him, we are happy for his keeping his words. A man of word is always good to be our Dearest Greatest Leader.
Posted by: expecting | November 7, 2008, 4:09 am 4:09 am
Wow, You people are ruthless…
Day 3 & everything’s Obama’s fault???
Everything’s his responsibility even though he hasn’t even been sworn in???
Where’s Bush??? Oh yeah, still emptying out the treasury while you guys provide cover… Pathetic!!!
Posted by: Chapman | November 7, 2008, 4:21 am 4:21 am
expecting,
Hold your horses. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already helping to enact a legislation to give you what the President Elect promised. If you are not the filthy rich, making more than $70,000,
you could get up to another $600 by August, 2009.
Posted by: Joeseph-DE | November 7, 2008, 4:25 am 4:25 am
“You are not implying that our Greatest Leader was lying all along, are you? Shame on you.”
————
You don’t think your great leader in office lied to the people, do you? You believed every word Senator McCain uttered, didn’t you? You are either a miserable creature or a cold hearted monster. It’s okay to disagree with the guy but wouldn’t it make sense to at least let him start governing? As long as things do not go your way, God in Heaven wouldn’t satisfy you because your heart cannot afford to open up and do a self-examination.
Posted by: D | November 7, 2008, 4:35 am 4:35 am
Mr Obama will fix the economy with no effort.
(although he will make it seem like he has done miracles)
When the time is right, and the moment is exact, he will call off Soros and friends.
At that point, the economy will rise and he will expect to become your God and Savior.
Posted by: seah | November 7, 2008, 4:39 am 4:39 am
Those who are blaming Obama for the choices is making, I think its quite unfair.
The man is trying to put right what went wrong with the present administration.
How he does it, what choices he makes is upon him. Our job is to wait and see whether he will deliver.
Posted by: FM | November 7, 2008, 4:53 am 4:53 am
Remember one President at a Time,Last I checked Bush is still President,Obama cannot step on Bushes toes,He is only President Elect there is only so much he can do!
Posted by: Angie | November 7, 2008, 4:58 am 4:58 am
the same old order err new order…Two words, ANGER MANAGEMENT…
Posted by: socalindep | November 7, 2008, 6:04 am 6:04 am
A VERY INTERESTING FACT is sitting there in those unployment numbers.
The last time we were this high was 1994…and who was the President then ?
According to all you libs on these forums for the past months, returning to the time of Clinton is supposed to be a “good thing”. Guess this little piece of history slipped your minds (selective memory)…huh?
Posted by: Mike_C | November 7, 2008, 6:17 am 6:17 am
To all those who didn’t get their choice on Tuesday. Look people, let’s give it a rest. Obama’s our president for the next four years and to continue spewing negative remarks accomplishes absolutely nothing. Obama doesn’t read this blog. In fact, no one of any consequence does because of the language and tone used by many of the bloggers. So relax, take a few deep breaths, and in four years you’ll get to vote again.
Posted by: samurai | November 7, 2008, 6:31 am 6:31 am
now gm is looking for a handout—why did they continue to produce the guzzlers and no super efficient cars—-oh i forget ford does —FOR EUROPEAN MARKET—–ford festiva diesel 67 mpg in europe—-between the arabs and china trade imbalance we have nothing including our jobs—bushy was to concerned with what i call his war.
Posted by: rodney | November 7, 2008, 6:48 am 6:48 am
“bushy was to concerned with what i call his war.”
Bush will be a burp in history.
Posted by: Mack | November 7, 2008, 6:54 am 6:54 am
[..unemployment rates..]
The last time we were this high was 1994…and who was the President then ?
Posted by: Mike_C | Nov 7, 2008 11:17:31 AM
When Clinton took office, unemployment was on a steady increase. It was 7.3% when he took office, and peaked at 7.8% in June. From that point on, unemployment rates started to fall and continued to decline until Clinton left office where it was at 3.9%.
On the other hand, Bush took that 3.9% unemployment rate and throughout his term has steadily increased it to it’s current 6.5% rate. In addition, due to sustained large scale deficit spending, Bush has devalued the dollar to a historic low, set the record twice for the largest single year deficit increases (not including the recent bailout fiasco), and that deficit spending is one of the major causes of the recession we are currently facing.
No, it has not ‘slipped our memory’, apparently it has yours.
Posted by: RealityCheck | November 7, 2008, 7:08 am 7:08 am
if allowed by congress obama’s tax policies will destroy the american family and business. socialism has always failed. it is an evil economic system that must be fought discouraged. we must keep more money in the people’s hands who work for it. that is what keeps an economy strong. it soesn’t take much intelligence to fihure that out
Posted by: charlie | November 7, 2008, 7:15 am 7:15 am
Charlie wrote: “it soesn’t take much intelligence to fihure that out”
Nope.. but apparently it takes some intelligence to realize that nobody is suggesting socialism. Such people need to go take an economics class or three.
Posted by: db | November 7, 2008, 7:20 am 7:20 am
Obama will do just fine and so will the economy. And for those of you seeking to blame Obama for the last two days: I guess Obama really wasn’t the cause behind the drop in the DOW or market- besides it’s been “roller-coastering” back and forth for the last couple of months- scratch within the last year now. It’s on a positive note today and also after China heard of our new president their market did well- really well.
Posted by: matteroffacts | November 7, 2008, 7:34 am 7:34 am
i am a registered republican but i and sis not vote due to being away at work and my polling place does nor accept mail ballots. i think that the country made a good choice. the republicans really have screwed the puch. why not let someone else take a shot at this? cant be much worse than it is now, can it? ok, so my party did not win. it is time we all started to be americans rather than dem. or rep. and work together and fix this thing. bickering will not solve the problem. obama is the preisdent now and lets give him a chnace b4 we start ripping him and i know i will be the 1st in line. Take care everyone.
Posted by: tony | November 7, 2008, 8:12 am 8:12 am
Look at the way the McCain camp and the Palin camp are attacking each other. Did we really need that in the White House?
Posted by: SA | November 7, 2008, 8:17 am 8:17 am
On saving the auto-industry.
I think the best way to help the american auto-industry, is to give them business. For example, let the big-3 to build electric Post-office vechicles for the Federal Government. This way, US can go green and big-3 has business and cash flow. We can also move closer to energy independent. The Federal Government can further to assist school districts and local governments to buy buses from big-3 that use natural gas by providing matching grants or low-interest loans to the local governments and school districts.
It may take the big-3 12-18 months to start delivering these vechicles. So, in the meantime, the Federal Government can give big-3 some amount of down payments and credits for them purchase raw materials from their suppliers.
This approach will achieve 3 things :
1. save the american auto-industry
2. create jobs.
3. moving towards energy independent
4. provide green energy for the country.
The big-3 will use the technology that they invent for Federal Government vechicles and extend for other commerical vechicles.
Posted by: Albert | November 7, 2008, 2:00 pm 2:00 pm
Concerning the economic bailout it is going to fail for one main reason. It doesn’t give companies responsibility, What Obama needs to do is provide a “one time” bailout. Meaning this would be the one chance they will get to do what they need to make things right. This would then give the failing companies incentive to use the money they get to make the necessary changes they need to make instead of spending the money on company paid trips, and anything else that are not needed.
This package should also have stipulations as well. Companies using the money should also be made to give account for the money spent. If the money is found to have been spent unwisely the companies CEO’s should be prosecuted, and be made to repay the money they had spent.
Posted by: Warren Walker | November 7, 2008, 2:03 pm 2:03 pm
All of those who are not part of the solution are part of the problem or, in this case, the republican party.
You must realize that you have been just rendered impotent, irrelevant, and something to be tolerated or ignored as we see fit.
For the next two years WE rule, get with the program or get out of the way.
It makes no difference to us now.
Posted by: seemstome | November 7, 2008, 2:29 pm 2:29 pm
Supporters of republicans have absolutely no credibility to argue against Obama or his decisions as of now. Good grief, he hasn’t even taken office yet. These are the same people that gave unwavering support to Bush and republicans as they took us to war, looted the treasury and mismanaged our resources. They need to shut up, sit back and watch how intelligent adults handle the nation’s business.
Posted by: McCain/Palin = Corporations First | November 8, 2008, 8:25 am 8:25 am
Actually folks believed that as soon as Obama got elected everything was going to come up roses.
They better start coming up and soon, or people will make the connection:
Bad economy=President Obama
Gee, Dems, you may soon feel the boot end of that equally lame argument about President Bush. ;-)
Posted by: Grand Old Party | November 10, 2008, 4:44 pm 4:44 pm
Those who supported Obama really need to practice tolerance of other’s opinions and accept that they are entitled to different ideas.
I also suggest, you remember that not all Obama voters belong to the Democrat party. And that 48 percent of voters did not even vote for Obama. And this does not even reflect the number of people who didn’t vote because they disliked both candidates.
That 48 percent is significant; independents can be fairly middle of the road and are not concerned with party or candidate loyalty; those who didn’t vote this time may not be so inclined to repeat not voting next time depending on how things play out.
In other words: Don’t get too smug. Don’t overreach. Act like a grown up.
And remember this about elephants: They NEVER forget.
Further, contrary to popular opinion no one rules in this country. We have no monarchy. No official aristocracy. We elect people to represent us. Not to rule us.
In the US, that went the way of King George (and no, I do not refer to Dubya)
As for Obama:
He cannot fix the economy (no one has the power to do that). The best way for government to help is to get out of the way. And STAY out of the way.
As nice as an extra thousand sounds, answer this: How well did that LAST stimulus check work to stimulate anything? I guess some of us really do have short memories.
Posted by: Tee hee | November 10, 2008, 5:31 pm 5:31 pm