Obama's transition approach raises confidence

Maybe this is a belated exercise, but I've been reading Barack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope." So far, I've found nothing alarming or surprising in it. Obama comes across as a pragmatic idealist, someone who has strong principles but recognizes that others may conscientiously disagree, and knows compromise is the way to get things done in a pluralistic, democratic society.

Obama's swift action on naming members of his new administration and his choice of obviously competent, knowledgeable people also give me encouragement about the new administration that will take office in America's toughest economy of my lifetime. Obama has demonstrated a careful, deliberative and active approach to the problems facing America. He has been careful, most of the time, not to interfere in the actions of the current administration, reminding reporters that there is only one president at a time. Still, he is eager to get moving on his own plans to bolster the flagging economy, and his selections for secretary of the Treasury and other key financial posts seem to ensure confidence in the new administration and relieve the fears of his critics.

The transition to a new administration is almost always a time of hope and anticipation. The naming of fresh new faces in the Cabinet almost always engenders confidence. Voters who selected a new president like to see a new administration, so the appointments a new president makes usually are greeted respectfully, if not warmly.

The last time this happened, George W. Bush's new appointees looked hopeful. The Texas governor, unschooled in foreign affairs and other matters, turned to experienced Washington hands, people like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who knew their way around the Pentagon and the halls of Congress. He boosted his own stature by naming Colin Powell, a respected general who had served Republican and Democratic presidents faithfully, to be secretary of state. It all looked promising.

But early impressions don't always last. Cheney and Rumsfeld turned out to be disastrous on the key issues of Iraq and terrorism, and Powell quit in disgrace after he had been used by the Cheney-Rumsfeld neoconservatives to lend credibility to the administration's false claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

America will learn soon enough whether the positive impression made by Obama's economic team will be validated. Economic changes develop slowly, however, and any government actions might not bear fruit for months, even years. Jimmy Carter, who lost the 1980 election in part because of a dreary economy with high unemployment and high inflation, named Paul Volcker (now an Obama adviser) chairman of the Federal Reserve. It was Volcker's tough love approach of high interest rates that finally quelled inflation, but by the time the cure finally took hold, Ronald Reagan was in office.