With a series of forceful actions, Obama sends strong signals from the sidelines

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Obama sends strong signals from the sidelines
By Peter Wallsten
November 23, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- With a series of forceful actions in recent days, amid an almost unprecedented set of challenges, Barack Obama has taken an unusual step for a president-elect: attempting to alter the country's perilous course even before he takes office.

The most dramatic example came Saturday, when Obama announced a far more aggressive economic stimulus plan than previously promised -- a two-year program to add 2.5 million jobs that he said represented "an early down payment on the type of reform my administration will bring to Washington."

That announcement was the latest indication that the president-elect has decided to use the transition period to influence events at a time of crisis, when the current administration appears powerless to stop a slide. "There's no question that Bush is still president, but people are looking for signs to see what's going to happen going forward," said an Obama aide who, like others, requested anonymity when discussing deliberations inside the transition. "We're going to attempt to do that in this period."

Obama has moved with unusual speed to fill most of his top White House staff positions. And over the last week, he settled on a number of key Cabinet appointments designed to remove the uncertainty that has sparked turbulence in the financial markets and to replace it with a sense of confidence in the administration-in-waiting. He offered the all-important job of Treasury secretary to a pragmatic and experienced regulator, Timothy F. Geithner, and reached out to former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, an experienced figure known around the world, to be the country's top diplomat. After the Geithner selection was reported Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average soared nearly 500 points.

On Monday, the president-elect will emerge from two weeks of near-seclusion to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his economics team for a news conference that aides hope will help calm an anxious public.

Obama's aggressive posture marks an evolution inside his transition team since immediately after the Nov. 4 election, when he pledged to live by a mantra that the country is led by "one president at a time."

Obama and his aides have been discussing how hands-off he should be with circumstances changing so dramatically: stocks tumbling; negotiations stalling over an economic stimulus plan and a possible automobile industry bailout; and another financial giant, Citigroup Inc., at risk. The quandary for Obama's team has been how to finesse a set of challenges not seen since 1932: a quickly deteriorating economy and a transition of power between two presidents with vastly different views on how to fix it....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-obama-team23-2008nov23,0,2050099,full.story

[FrenchieCat]

1. Bush should just announce that he is going to his ranch on vacation......

as his contribution to the closing of his presidency.