Change of Obama Already Appears Rather Classical

Since his victory on November 4th, a new website exists for the new president: change.gov. The first word reminds people of the campaign promise of Barack Obama, while the extension ‘gov,’ which is used in America for government institutions only, indicates that Obama is already partly governing.

The website is not only an instrument for public relations. Via www.change.org, citizens can apply for a job in the new government. The most important functions are not available anymore, though. Whether Obama will ask his rival Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state is not known yet. But for the rest, the forefront of the government has been formed.

It is striking that the coming president relies on political veterans. The chief speechwriter will be 27-year-old Jon Favreau, a job often fulfilled by youngsters, but most top officials have experience in Washington. The new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel (48), already worked for President Clinton in his early thirties. Outside of the White House, these kinds of politicians appear as well. Bill Richardson will become the Secretary of Commerce, a crucial post because of the unions’ leanings towards protectionism. Ex-Treasury secretary Larry Summers will go to the Economic Council. Simultaneously, Obama has reserved key posts for outsiders in his efforts for less partisan contradictions. General James Jones will become his Security Advisor. The Republican Richard Gates will stay on at Defense.

Some patterns became visible in these nominations. First of all, Obama aims for, eye to eye with an economic crisis, a team of sheer high rollers. That can cause problems if they all want to be in charge. Even aside from that is the question as to whether Obama can hold on to his promise to fiscally relieve the middle class. With a budget deficit of 6.5 percent (and an ambitious healthcare plan), tax cuts are not logical.

Second, his foreign policy team looks like nothing but a collection of “doves.” For example, almost everyone in this sector has supported the war in Iraq, a choice which Obama never had to make, because he was only elected into the Senate for the first time in 2004. Nonetheless, Obama, has promised to end that war within sixteen months.

By pulling out of Iraq, he hopes to intensify the battle against terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has increased in relevance because of the attack on Mumbai this week. In short, after a renewing election campaign, in which the word “change” had a magical ring to it, the transition of the coming president is now proceeding much more traditionally. That could possible dim the voters’ enthusiasm which had its own dynamic force in the campaign last year, more than it should. The new president already has little financial space to please Americans because of the economic crisis.

Obama, not only a rhetorical prodigy but also a perfectionist and file eater, apparently estimates America to be and stay a center-right country. Moreover, the current times offer little room for risky experiments.

Possibly, Obama does not immediately want to become a unique, but first and foremost a normal president. Looking at the piling-up of problems everywhere in the world, that seems to be a good plan.