But proposals for tough limits on greenhouse gas emissions from energy-generating plants and other facilities, a program known as "cap and trade," will be harder to pass because they impose new costs on energy producers.
"This is going to be a tremendously heavy lift to get passed," acknowledged Heather Higginbottom, Obama's chief domestic policy advisor in the campaign.
And some Democrats are already debating whether Obama's promised middle-class tax cut should be scaled back to lessen the hit to the budget. "He should be able to persuade the country that some promises are going to have to be put on hold," said Will Marshall of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council.
So instead of focusing on President-elect Obama's big-ticket goals, his transition aides and Democratic congressional leaders have been drawing up a list of easy-to-pass items with broad bipartisan support.
The best way to get an Obama administration off on the right foot, they argue, is through early, eye-catching successes. And, where possible, they will try to find common ground with Republicans.
"To start on the right foot, you've got to tee a few things up and make damn sure that you win," Panetta said. "That sends a signal to Congress and the public that you're serious about governing."
A prime candidate for early action is an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program to make healthcare available to more children in low-income families, funded by an increase in tobacco taxes.
A victory on the children's health program, Emanuel said, would give Obama a quick, clear accomplishment on an issue that most voters approve -- much like the popular family leave bill that Clinton passed in his first year in office.
A second early priority, aides said, would be federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. In 2007, President Bush vetoed bills funding stem cell research and expanded health insurance for children.
Emanuel isn't the only Obama advisor who has been contemplating the lessons of Clinton's unhappy first year in office, when Democratic congressional leaders pushed a new president to the left -- leading to the party's loss of both houses in the midterm elections of 1994.
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doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com
