Obama sends strong signals from the sidelines
A TIME OF TRANSITION
The president-elect looks to reassure the financial markets and the public with swift Cabinet appointments and aggressive policy plans.
Reporting from Washington — With a series of forceful actions in recent days, amid an almost unprecedented set of challenges, Barack Obama has taken an unusual step for a president-elect: attempting to alter the country's perilous course even before he takes office.
The most dramatic example came Saturday, when Obama announced a far more aggressive economic stimulus plan than previously promised -- a two-year program to add 2.5 million jobs that he said represented "an early down payment on the type of reform my administration will bring to Washington."
That announcement was the latest indication that the president-elect has decided to use the transition period to influence events at a time of crisis, when the current administration appears powerless to stem a downward slide.
"There's no question that Bush is still president, but people are looking for signs to see what's going to happen going forward," said an Obama aide who, like others, requested anonymity when discussing deliberations inside the transition. "We're going to attempt to do that in this period."
Obama has moved with unusual speed to fill most of his top White House staff positions. And over the last week, he settled on a number of key Cabinet appointments designed to remove the uncertainty that has sparked turbulence in the financial markets and replace it with a sense of confidence in the administration-in-waiting. He offered the all-important job of Treasury secretary to a pragmatic and experienced regulator, Timothy F. Geithner, and reached out to former rival Hillary Rodham Clinton to tap an experienced figure known around the world as the country's top diplomat. After the Geithner selection was reported Friday, the Dow Jones soared nearly 500 points.
On Monday, the president-elect will emerge from two weeks of near-seclusion to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with his economics team for a news conference that aides hope will help restore calm to an anxious public.
Obama's aggressive posture marks an evolution inside his transition team since immediately after the Nov. 4 election, when he pledged to live by a mantra that the country is led by "one president at a time."
The shift comes as Obama and his aides have been discussing how hands-off he should be now that circumstances are changing so dramatically -- with stocks tumbling, with negotiations stalling over an economic stimulus plan and a possible automobile industry bailout and with another financial giant, Citigroup Inc., at risk.
