President-elect prepares diplomatic offensive
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama says he will appoint a team immediately after his inauguration Tuesday to address "on Day One" the crisis in Gaza and brewing troubles across the Middle East.
"We've got a regional set of problems," Obama said in a wide-ranging interview with USA TODAY, noting challenges in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan as well as between Israelis and Palestinians. "They're not going to be solved in isolation. And we've got to be active in all these areas in order for us to be successful in any of these areas."
The diplomatic offensive, which could include the appointment of special envoys, contrasts sharply with President Bush's approach to the volatile region. Bush put less emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict early in his tenure and tended to deal with Middle East problems separately.
In an interview Wednesday at transition headquarters, Obama was relaxed and seemingly at ease — in turn somber about foreign challenges, confident that the massive stimulus package would pass Congress by mid-February and animated about his inaugural address.
He said he had finished "a good, solid draft" last weekend although he might still do some "tinkering" on it.
"My job in this speech and in my presidency is just to remind people of the road we've traveled and the extraordinary odds that we've already overcome," he said. The first African American elected president, he called himself "an emblem" of that progress.
His message to Americans: "We've been through tougher times before, and we're going to get through these."
Obama bristled a bit when asked about Bush's comments in a USA TODAY interview Tuesday suggesting the new president might reconsider his opposition to such anti-terrorism tools as "enhanced" interrogation techniques and the U.S. prison at Guantanamo once he's in the Oval Office.
"I don't make these decisions blindly," Obama replied. Since the election, he noted, he has been receiving the same daily intelligence briefing as Bush. "We're not leaping before we look here. I understand exactly what issues are at stake."
