Economic Crisis Offers Hints of Obama's Executive Style

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: Analysis
Economic Crisis Offers Hints of Executive Style
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: December 12, 2008

CHICAGO — He will not formally take power for almost six weeks, but President-elect Barack Obama is already showing some glimpses of how he will wield it.

Despite his professed resolve to stay at arms length from governance during the transition, the economic crisis has forced him to play a more active role — nowhere more so than in Washington’s scramble to avert the collapse of the Big Three automakers with a federal lifeline. From here at what an aide called his “mini-White House,” Mr. Obama has been pulling on the levers of power far more than any president-elect in memory, using his new stature to influence events in Congress and the real White House of President Bush and yet limited in his ability — as the collapse of the auto bailout legislation in the Senate showed — to control them.

On Friday, after Senate Republicans’ opposition had doomed a $15 billion industry loan the night before, Mr. Obama called on Mr. Bush and Congress to find an alternative. Twenty-four hours earlier, Mr. Obama had used the bully pulpit of a news conference to urge Congress to approve the loan or risk “a devastating ripple effect throughout our economy.” It was Mr. Obama who set the debate in motion just a week after his election, despite his reluctance to be involved directly. Amid signs that G.M. and Chrysler might not survive the year, he pressed Mr. Bush at a private meeting to support government help. In the next weeks, he directed his advisers to open lines of communication to Republicans. A White House aide said Mr. Obama speaks with Mr. Bush “more than any of us know.”

In both the auto debate and parallel work on his promised two-year economic recovery plan, Mr. Obama has shown an inclination to set the broad terms for debate, and then to delegate details to advisers and Congress....Yet Mr. Obama digs deeply into issues himself; he surprised one adviser in a conference call about the automakers by knowledgeably discussing “DIP financing,” a complex special form of financing for distressed companies.

Along the way, with a skeleton team of senior advisers, Mr. Obama has shown no hesitance in stepping into disputes between the more experienced Democrats who run the House and Senate to forge the united front he will need in coming years to pass his ambitious agenda....

***

After his daily workout, Mr. Obama arrives at his office in a no-frills suite in the Federal Building. He eats peanuts while reviewing memorandums and joining the conference calls that are his main conduits for information until he and his Washington staff are in the White House. Mr. Obama asks lots of questions, advisers say, and typically makes quick decisions. He leaves the office each day with a notebook stuffed with policy papers and information on potential hires. Each night at home there is a final conference call, about issues coming up the following day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/13/us/politics/13obama.html

[firedupdem]

1. I am impressed with how he's handled himself and the transition

so far. Great Job President Elect!

[izquierdista]

2. This has to be painful for him.

Mr. Obama speaks with Mr. Bush “more than any of us know.”

In another 10 years, when Obama writes his memoirs, we will find out how painful it was to entertain the charade that Dumbya was "in charge".