All the Right Moves

Barack Obama has not committed a false step since becoming president-elect. The country is on the precipice of economic disaster. We are fighting two wars in woe-begotten lands. Yet Obama shows what he has shown all along: a cool rationality and appreciation of the complexities that await him when he finally shoulders the mantle of the presidency.

Politically, he reached out to John McCain to show one and all that the war has ended and that it truly is time to bind up the nation's political wounds. Any speculation that McCain would soon find a place in Obama's cabinet were just that, speculation, baseless and uninformed. But the image of the two former combatants sitting side by side and making uneasy conversation showed that the self-righteousness of the Bush administration was over. I suppose if Obama could talk to McCain so soon after the calumnies that the Republicans dumped on him, then the president-elect should have no problem talking with some of the nastier fellows on the world scene such as Putin and Ahmadinejad. Besides, he could always tell al-queda's Al-Zawahiri, "Your mother!"

On the economic front, Obama has taken several important actions to address the critical state of the nation's and world's economies. He has put in place what seems like a first rate and experienced team whose focus is on action rather than ideology. The president-elect is not promising the immediate alleviation of the economic woes that afflict us but he is promising immediate attention during the interregnum and, once he takes office, immediate action. It is far more important at this juncture that he addresses the psychology of the recession than the policy of recession. For the latter, the appropriate time is January 21, 2009. The markets have apparently given their imprimatur to both his appointments and his statements regarding where he intends to lead this nation, his ideas for job creation, infrastructure repair, and the survival of American industry.

Obama is setting the bar very low regarding the impact that he will make during the mythic first 100 days of his adminstration. He has stated that the economy will get worse before it gets better. This may well be true, but knowing that he is working on ideas, and that he will be prepared to implement polices in less than 60 days already begins to lift the gloom that was beginning to take on an unbearable and palpable physicality.

So the enormous impact of president-elect Obama can be stated simply: We have not yet turned a corner but we know things will get better.