Obama's Mighty Economic Challenge

[DeepModem Mom]

WP political blog, "The Fix," by Chris Cillizza
Obama's Mighty Economic Challenge

The last 24 hours -- dominated by yesterday's contentious Senate hearing with the top executives of the American auto industry and today's announcement that 533,000 jobs had been lost in November -- have crystallized the depth and breadth of the challenge that President-elect Barack Obama will inherit when he takes office on Jan. 20.

At no time in modern political history has a president stepped into as tenuous and politically treacherous a moment as Obama will next month. Former President Bill Clinton was faced with a sluggish economy when he took office in 1992 but nothing like the fundamental economic restructuring that is taking place right now. President George W. Bush was nearly a year into his term before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 reshaped and refocused his presidency.

And, because of the way Obama won -- a sweeping national victory centered on the idea of changing the way politics is done in America -- there are certain to be high (and at times unrealistic) expectations of the president-elect to quickly reverse the economic slide....

Carter Eskew, a longtime Democratic strategist, said that the only apt historical comparison for Obama's predicament is that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt....The bigger question, according to Eskew, is not whether Obama will have the freedom and leeway to make big change happen but rather what that big change will be. "The scary question for Obama, as it was for Roosevelt is: what do you actually do?," asked Eskew. "The old economic orthodoxies seem inadequate to today's reality."...

***

"It is possible that Obama's inauguration will only be a milestone along the deeper slide, but once it hits bottom he gets all the upside," said one Democratic strategist granted anonymity to speak candidly. "Obama can hardly be blamed for the immediate situation getting worse. His challenge is to provide the dawn."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2008/12/obamas_mighty_challenge.html?hpid=topnews

[ihavenobias]

1. Kick n/t