Pat Dollard | Young Americans

“Forget “hope” and “change” and “yes we can.” Teary-eyed jubilation is giving way to clear-eyed realism.

“Oh, wow,” Obama commented as he walked to a podium marked with an eagle seal and the words, “The Office of the President Elect.”
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CHICAGO (AP) - President-elect Obama is putting hope on hold.

In two appearances since he was elected, Obama has emphasized the monumental challenges the country faces and warned against expectations that he will bring a quick fix. The change he promised on the campaign trail may come, he told an eager nation, but it will take some time.

“We are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime,” Obama said at a news conference Friday.

Obama faces war and recession, and an ambitious list of campaign promises like tax cuts, expanded health care and a new approach to energy. Politically Obama needs the country to be patient so it isn’t disappointed when he doesn’t deliver monumental change overnight.

“It is not going to be quick, and it is not going to be easy for us to dig ourselves out of the hole that we are in,” he said..

For ten weeks, Obama has the luxury of looking and sounding presidential without being held accountable for decisions. But the economy could keep sliding as he stands by helplessly, building tremendous pressure from frustrated Americans impatiently wanting the change he promised.

Days into the transition, Obama began to put on the cloak of the presidency. He addressed the media and the country Friday with the appearance of a White House news conference, surrounded by accomplished Washington hands to help him lead the transition and, eventually, the country.

Obama has been using most of his time to study up and prepare for the job. Advisers describe a man who is keenly aware of the strengths and weaknesses he brings to the job, and is eager to soak up expertise from others. He met with economic experts from government, business and academia Friday and asked to begin receiving top-secret international intelligence immediately upon becoming president-elect.

Daily intelligence briefings began Thursday and continued through the weekend, even as he was supposed to be resting up after the grueling two-year campaign. He’s also set aside time daily to return calls arranged through President Bush’s State Department to foreign leaders reaching out to him.

Security, always tight around Obama, became more intense this week. He delivered his election night address behind an eight-foot wall of bulletproof glass, and a Counter Assault Team of agents toting automatic rifles is a regular part of his motorcade.

En route to the FBI building, a couple in a tan car learned the price of trying to drive through the motorcade. Secret Service agents cut them off while the CAT squad aimed its guns at the occupants. The driver and passenger raised their hands until the agents backed off and the motorcade sped away.

Before emerging from behind a curtain Friday to address the media, Obama remarked to aides that the event felt very different from the many news conferences he held as a candidate. Indeed, it was—his words had new power to move markets or create an international incident.

“Oh, wow,” Obama commented as he walked to a podium marked with an eagle seal and the words, “The Office of the President Elect.”

The news conference was briefer than most at the White House—Obama took just nine questions in a Q-and-A that lasted under 15 minutes after his opening statement. But he handled it like he’d been at it for a long time, avoiding specifics or direct answers when it served him and showing a sense of humor.

The stock market sank after Obama’s press conference.

Chicago Tribune:

WASHINGTON—Forget “hope” and “change” and “yes we can.” The word that will matter most, when Barack Obama assumes the Oval Office, is “doable.”

Teary-eyed jubilation is giving way to clear-eyed realism. As his campaign rhetoric runs into governing reality, Obama will have to contend with a set of political and practical restrictions that are perhaps more daunting than any faced by an incoming president since Franklin Roosevelt took over amid the Great Depression. And he will have to tailor his early policy agenda accordingly.

Obama is set to inherit a plunging economy, ongoing wars and a massive federal deficit coupled with a long national wish list. His party owns large House and Senate majorities, but the numbers hide major disagreements over priorities. He will be pulled by core Democratic groups who have waited years to advance their interests, by the weight of his campaign promises and by the expectations of a beleaguered electorate.

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