Transition from Candidate to President

It has been 14 days since Senator Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States and he has yet to announce a Cabinet member. Not only that, but the economy is still in trouble, troops are still in Iraq, and his two girls are still without their hypo-allergenic dog. I don't know about you, but this whole thing is just going too slowly for me.

I just saw this morning that 80% of Russians would have voted for Obama if they could have voted. Babies all over the world are being named Barack. Even in the Middle East expectations are sky high, and yet, President-elect Obama keeps reminding us that we only have one president at a time and he is not yet the president. The world seems very much like a kid with a candy bar that has been told he cannot eat it until he finishes his dinner. I don't know how many peas we're going to have to eat before we get to dessert.

I might also say that I don't think I have ever seen a transition quite like this one. My recollection is that in general President-elects head for vacation right after the election. This President-elect is already putting in long hours. He wasn't even able to head back to Hawaii for his grandmother's memorial service. I wasn't around for FDR's transition, but given the gravity of the nation's problems in 1932, and the additional delay before the actual inauguration it must have been mind boggling. There is little doubt, that all President-elect Obama's hard work will help him hit the ground running with a strong staff in place on January 20th, but what happens in the meantime?

There are so many pitfalls to avoid, and so many traps to fall into. Do you cooperate or stay aloof from the current administration? Do you attend the global summit? Do you promote an auto industry bailout or not? Do you meet with world leaders, and which ones? Do you announce your cabinet all at once, or piece by piece? How many and which Republicans should be part of your cabinet? How far do you go to ensure that your cabinet has the right number of minorites, females, etc.? It makes me tired just thinking about it. That doesn't even include developing policies to address all the critical and multi-faceted problems staring the country in the face.

What have we seen so far, and what tantalizing bits of information can we glean from these first steps? First the leaks. A campaign with no missteps suddenly seems to be full of rumors and a little bumpiness. Rahm Emmanuel's name was leaked as the new chief of staff before the election. Then, he said he was mulling the decision over. Seemed a little sloppy. Names for various cabinet positions are coming from many sources. Maybe its just the transition from a small team of campaign advisors to the enormous number of people involved in the transition. Maybe some of the leaks like that of Hillary Clinton have been intentional. Maybe we just need to realize that no transition is perfect. No cause for worry at this point, but it might bear watching.

Although criticized by some Republicans the selection of Rahm Emmanuel is an excellent one. The importance of a strong chief of staff can not be over stated. President Clinton was at his best when Leon Panetta was his chief of staff. It remains one of the most encouraging signs of the in-coming administration that the best and brightest seem to be the ones Obama is inclined to call on. The list reads like a who's who directory: Bob Gates, Bob Rubin, Larry Summers, Paul Volker, Hillary Clinton. The list goes on and on. The greatest difficulty will probably be in choosing the right person from each list. But the end result certainly looks promising.

Perhaps President-elect Obama is addressing the too high expectations best, by just slowing down a bit the public roll out of his administration. He is clearly working hard behind the scenes. Yet, I think he may be trying to get all of us used to the reality that positive change will be gradual, and we are not going to see a new problem solved each day. We are just going to have to wait awhile for that candy bar.