The Early Word: Obama Faces Liberal Angst

As he carefully picks the members of his cabinet and White House inner circle, President-elect Barack Obama faces an additional challenge: pleasing the ranks of the more liberal members of the Democratic Party. And there are indications that he has not been entirely successful.

As The Times’s Peter Baker reports today, his choices have “deeply frustrated” some liberals though many are taking a wait-and-see approach:

But so far, they are mainly muting their protest, clinging to the belief that Mr. Obama still means what he said on the campaign trail and remaining wary of undermining what they see as the most liberal president sent to the White House in a generation. They are quietly lobbying for more liberals in the next round of appointments, seeking at least some like-minded voices at the table. And they are banking on the idea that no matter whom he installs under him, Mr. Obama will be the driving force for the change they seek.

As Mr. Baker notes, Obama aide Steve Hildebrand answered some of the criticism coming from liberal quarters in an article on the Huffington Post over the weekend in which he urged the “left wing of our party” not to be too hasty in drawing conclusions about the president-elect’s cabinet appointments to date.

On Mr. Obama’s schedule today: a meeting with former Vice President Al Gore to discuss climate change and other issues. As the Politico’s Jonathan Martin notes, Mr. Gore aides say he isn’t visiting the president-elect for a job interview:

Gore intends on continuing his work on the environment and energy from the outside rather than accepting a post.

“This meeting is a continuation of their conversations about climate and energy and how policies to address them can help the economy and jobs,” said Kalee Kreider, a Gore spokeswoman. “Former Vice President Gore still believes his calling at this time is to help educate the public about the issues through his roles at the Alliance at Climate Protection and other work.”

Mr. Obama and his advisers are also likely to be keeping a close eye on the pending agreement between the White House and Congressional Democrats on bailing out the automobile industry.

The Inauguration Besides cabinet appointments, no topic has been getting more buzz in Washington recently than the plans for Mr. Obama’s Jan. 20 swearing-in ceremony and the accompanying parades and parties. But as The Times’s Katharine Q. Seelye notes, striking the proper tone for a celebration in tough economic times can be tricky:

“There’s no question that people are in tough times,” said Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for Mr. Obama’s inaugural committee. “But we hope that this will be an event in which we celebrate our common values and shared aspirations.” She added, “What we are looking to achieve is a tone that is hopeful.”

The Washington Post lays out some of the logistical challenges inauguration week, including the issue of transporting hordes of people in and out of the city on buses:

The sheer size of the charter bus contingent, carrying as many as a half-million people, has an enormous cascading effect on the rest of transportation planning. Widespread street closures downtown will prevent charter buses from dropping passengers off at events, so officials need to figure out where buses will park. The parking locations, in turn, will affect where and how many people squeeze on to packed Metro trains.
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City officials say the number of buses could exceed 10,000. More than 5,000 passenger carrier companies with more than 23,000 vehicles have interstate operating authority within 1,000 miles of Washington, from Maine to east of the Mississippi to Miami, according to City Administrator Dan Tangherlini. The city’s call center staff began contacting hundreds of bus companies over the weekend to ask about bookings, he said.

N.Y. Senate With Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton headed for the State Department, rumors have been swirling about who will serve out the remainder of her term in the Senate. Much of the talk is focused on Caroline Kennedy. And, according to The Times’s David M. Halbfinger, “her uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, has been working behind the scenes on her behalf, according to Democratic aides.”

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Picking Obama successor puts spotlight on governor

This article was first published Nov.12

The task of filling President-elect Barack Obama's seat in the Senate offers Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois a rare chance to wield influence in Washington.

It also offers Blagojevich, a Democrat in his second term, the rare chance to focus public attention on something other than his litany of problems — a federal investigation into his administration, his icy standoffs with the Democratic-controlled State Legislature and his dismal approval rating (which, according to a Chicago Tribune survey last month, has sunk to 13 percent, worse even than some approval marks for President George W. Bush).

"Compared to everything else, this is good publicity," said Kent Redfield, a political scientist at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "Now it's a matter of doing something on it that helps him politically. He needs to."

Since Election Day, Blagojevich's decision, assigned to him under Illinois law, has become this state's political parlor game, one buried in layers deeper than just which Democrat will best guard the seat until the 2010 election.

Among the many political concerns: Should another African-American finish the term of Obama? Should the replacement be a caretaker with no expectations of re-election, or someone who dreams of staying on? And how might Blagojevich navigate the choice in such a way that might shore up some specks of support for his own political future?

Under state law, the governor has wide discretion in coming up with a successor. He need only pick someone who is a resident of the state, is at least 30 years old and has been a United States citizen for at least nine years.

The list of those rumored to be under consideration (including some, it seems, who have blatantly offered themselves up to the governor) grows longer each day. Blagojevich, who is turning to a group of close advisers for guidance, is expected to make a decision around Christmas.

Meanwhile, the calls keep coming.

"It's unbelievable what this has become; he is hearing it from all sides," said Lucio Guerrero, Blagojevich's spokesman, who described some of the inquiries to the governor as amounting to people essentially dreaming aloud, "Boy, I'd be a good senator."

Most often, political analysts here mention names like Representative Jesse Jackson Jr., long a Democratic congressman from Chicago's South Side and the city's southern suburbs and son of the civil rights activist; Tammy Duckworth, a veteran of the war in Iraq who lost her legs when her helicopter came under fire and who is now director of the state's Department of Veterans Affairs; Valerie Jarrett, a close adviser to Obama and longtime ally of Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago (she told The Chicago Tribune on Wednesday that she was not interested in the appointment); and several other members of Congress from in and near Chicago, including Melissa Bean, Danny Davis, Luis Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky.

Many of the most-discussed names on the list are loathe to discuss the possibility publicly, instead staying silent or issuing brief, generic statements.

"Now that Senator Obama has won the presidency, I would be honored and humbled to be appointed to succeed him in the U.S. Senate," Jackson said in a statement. "But, in the end, the decision rests with Governor Blagojevich, and I'm confident that he'll make an appointment in the best interest of the state as well as the nation."

That said, Jackson's camp also commissioned and made public a poll that looked at what likely voters in Illinois thought about possible replacements for Obama. It showed Jackson, who has one of the most recognized names in Illinois politics, topping the list.

Duckworth, who was appointed to the veterans' affairs job by Blagojevich after she lost a bid for Congress in 2006, said in an interview that she had not spoken to him about the Senate opening.

"If I were to be considered, I'd be deeply honored," said Duckworth, who added that she would also be perfectly happy to stay put, "taking care of Illinois veterans."

Duckworth, who remains a major in the Illinois National Guard, has also been mentioned as someone who might be offered a role in the Obama administration. She and Obama have not discussed such a possibility, she said, but she noted that whenever a commander in chief had summoned her, "I have grabbed my boots and headed over."

While influential Democrats might usually weigh in as the governor makes such a decision, Obama has suggested that he will stay out of the matter. Blagojevich is also something of a loner in the political world here, having clashed over the years with Democratic leaders and wrestling with his public image.

Though Blagojevich came into office portraying himself as a reformer, his administration has come under federal scrutiny; by last month, 13 people had been indicted in a corruption probe into influence peddling. Blagojevich, who has left open the possibility of running for a third term in 2010, has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Blagojevich has indicated that he does not intend to appoint himself to the Senate seat, a seemingly far-fetched option, but one some of his severest critics seemed to think was possible. Some analysts still suggest he might consider appointing one of his potential rivals to remove them from a governor's race — for example, Lisa Madigan, the state attorney general and daughter of Michael Madigan, the longtime speaker of the Illinois House; or Daniel Hynes, the state comptroller and son of Thomas Hynes, another powerful Illinois Democrat.

Some critics, only half jokingly, suggest that Blagojevich might want to consider Patrick Fitzgerald, the United States attorney here for the past seven years who has overseen investigations into the administrations of Blagojevich and his predecessor, City Hall, the county jail and former Chicago police officers, among others.

Guerrero, his spokesman, said Blagojevich was focused on finding someone who would be a strong advocate for the residents of Illinois on matters like health care and jobs.

"The other stuff I don't think is weighing on him as much as people make it out to be," Guerrero said, chalking up Blagojevich's low approval ratings to the bleak economic times. "When your name is on the door, you're the one people are going to be talking about."

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Obama warns economy will get even worse

U.S. ‘fragility’ tied to worldwide financial crisis, president-elect says

CHICAGO - The economic recession will get significantly worse before it starts to improve, President-elect Barack Obama said, seeking in an interview broadcast Sunday to tamp down expectations as he prepares to assume the presidency in 44 days.

“If you look at the unemployment numbers ... the fragility of the financial system and the fact that it’s an international system,” the recession “ is a big problem, and it’s going to get worse,” Obama told NBC News’ Tom Brokaw on Saturday. The interview aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Acknowledging that his agenda had changed sharply just in the month since he was elected, Obama said passing a short-term economic

stimulus package was now his top priority.

“We’ve got to provide a blood infusion right now, make sure that the patient is stabilized,” he said, adding that the budget deficit, by some estimates more than $1 trillion, would have to be put on the back burner “for now.”

“We’ve got to get the economy moving,” he said.

Roads, highways, state projects first targets

The president elect said the new White House economic team would put forth an economic recovery package featuring a short-term stimulus element paired with “a strong set of financial regulations” under which “banks, ratings agencies, mortgage brokers, a whole bunch of folks [would] start having to be much more accountable and behave much more responsibly.”

In the near term, Obama said, the government will speed ahead with “shovel-ready projects,” saying it would get “the most bang for the buck” by “investing in the largest infrastructure programs,” such as roads and bridges already in the pipeline at the state level.

Such spending not only would be “an immediate stimulus,” he said, “because I think we can get a lot of work done fast,” but the projects would be “down payments on the kind of long-term sustainable growth that we need.”

In his weekly radio address Saturday, Obama said his plan would put millions of people to work by “making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s.”

The president-elect also singled out the auto industry Sunday as the target of special concern, saying the government should be prepared to provide major assistance, but only if it was “conditioned on them making significant adjustments.”

The White House and Congress were trading proposals throughout the weekend on a plan to extend up to about $15 billion in emergency loans for the so-called Big Three U.S. automakers — General Motors Corp., Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. — whose fortunes have plummeted.

Obama endorsed the negations, saying “the auto industry is the backbone of American manufacturing.”

“It is a huge employer across many states,” he said. “I don’t think it’s an option to allow it simply to collapse.”

At the same time, he said, “they do not have a sustainable business model right now,” insisting that the industry needed an overhaul involving “labor, management, shareholders, investors.”

“If the want to survive, then they better start building a fuel-efficient car,” Obama said, and accept that the future will never again be as “rosy as they project.”

Shinseki to be tapped for VA

Obama was interviewed in his hometown by Brokaw, who is stepping down as host of “Meet the Press,” an assignment he assumed in June on the sudden death of longtime moderator Tim Russert. NBC’s chief White House correspondent, David Gregory, will become permanent moderator next Sunday.

Obama announced during the interview that at a news conference later Sunday, he would nominate retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, who clashed with the Bush administration as Army chief of staff, .

“I think that General Shinseki is exactly the right person who is going to be able to make sure that we honor our troops when they come home,” Obama said.

Shinseki’s clashed repeatedly with President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during Bush’s first term, when he contradicted their contention that the war in Iraq could be won with a relatively small number of troops.

In a direct slap at his bosses, Shinseki testified before Congress that the United States would need several hundred thousand more troops than Rumsfeld predicted, prompting Rumsfeld to publicly rebuke his Army chief. Shinseki retired shortly thereafter.

Obama said history had shown that Shinseki “was right” and said the general had demonstrated special concern for the plight of veterans injured during the war.

“When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served — higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate — it breaks my heart,” Obama said.

As head of of the government’s second largest agency, Shinseki, 66, would be the first Asian American in Obama’s cabinet.

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Obama hits McCain on economy in FL

The audience at Barack Obama's rally at the Jacksonville Veterans
Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, today.
( Chicago Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak )

by John McCormick, updated

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Seeking to keep Democrats motivated, Barack Obama kept his focus on John McCain today as he made the first of three campaign stops in Atlantic Coast states that went Republican in 2004.

In the final critical hours before Tuesday's election, Obama hammered McCain for saying in September that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong" during a campaign stop in the same building.

"John McCain just doesn't get it. Remember what he said when he was here in Jacksonville on September 15th?" the Illinois Democrat asked a less-than-capacity audience of about 9,000 inside Veterans Memorial Arena.

"That day, more than 5,000 jobs were lost. More than 7,000 homes were foreclosed on. The day before, former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said we were in a 'once in a century' crisis," he said. "And yet, despite our economic crisis, John McCain actually came here ... and repeated something he's said at least sixteen times on this campaign. He said - and I quote - 'the fundamentals of our economy are strong.'"

As the crowd booed, Obama used a line he consistently has in recent days: "You don't need to boo. You just need to vote."

(Photos by the Chicago Tribune's Zbigniew Bzdak)

Obama's campaign has been criticized for not providing the full context of what McCain said: "Our economy, I think, is still -- the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times."

Later that day, McCain altered his message, saying his earlier remarks were meant to praise U.S. workers for their resilience and he described the financial meltdown as a "crisis."

McCain's campaign responded with a statement that mocked Obama for a comment he made to MTV.

"Barack Obama said one thing at his rally, but earlier in the day he used more telling language saying that his plan for higher taxes will only amount to 'chump change' for millions of hardworking families," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a statement. "Of course, Americans aren't 'chumps' and they're looking for a leader with a record of making change, not taking it."

Obama, meanwhile, stressed the importance of Florida's 27 electoral votes, saying he needed to win the state. He also tamped down some of the expressions of confidence he offered a day earlier, fearing supporters could become complacent.

"This is going to be close here in Florida. This is going to be close all across the country," he said. "We're going to have to work like our futures depend on it for the next 24 hours because it does. Understand, at this point, I've made the arguments. Now it's all about who wants it more. Who believes in it more."

After arriving here around 1 a.m. today, Obama seemed a little confused about what state he was in at one point.

"The Republicans are spending a lot of money on ads here in Ohio, but if you watch those ads, you don't know - Florida," he said, correcting himself. "I've been traveling too much."

Obama also continued to link McCain to an unpopular president.

"George Bush dug us a deep hole," he said. "Now he's trying to hand off the shovel to John McCain."

As he has in recent days, Obama recounted the 21-month journey he has been on during his quest for the presidency.

"After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one day away from changing the United States of America," he said.

"Tomorrow, you can choose policies that invest in our middle-class, create new jobs, and grow this economy so that everybody has a chance to succeed; the CEO and the secretary," he said. "Tomorrow, you can put an end to the politics that would divide a nation just to win an election; that tries to pit region against region, city against town, Republican against Democrat; that asks us to fear at a time when we need hope."

Obama has stops scheduled for later today in North Carolina and Virginia, before flying home to Chicago around midnight.

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