Obama's economic team: None too soon

no. there is only one president at a time. in fact, there is currently only 1 present elect, g.w. bush, until the electors vote on dec. 15. read a book and learn something, for goodness sake. barry will get his chance when it is time - and not before. as of today, he is NOT the president of the united states.

Two? Bush is AWOL. Thank goodness Obama's team is stepping up and we'll at least have an acting president until 1-20.

Talkie-talk of Obama's "One-year plan". Or is it now a "two year plan?"

It's obvious Obama has NO plan. Never has had a plan.

He doesn't have to wait till Jan. 20th to introduce legislation. He and the Congressional Democrats could do so right now. Could have done so a week ago. Could have done so two months ago. That is, if Obama had a plan, they could.

The fact that he hasn't speaks volumes about his amateur approach to government. And speaks volumes about the unwillingness of the media to ask obvious questions of their Messiah.

Obama is only responding to pressure, pressure which, I am sure, came from many sources. While it is true that Obama is not yet the president, the reigning perception of Bush as a lame-duck with every day making his potential effectiveness exponentially lower (consider that in the last week of his presidency Bush will be even less of a cipher than he is now), and considering that Bush himself is probably being (amazingly for him) extremely cautious, not wanting to do something that can further damage the economy (consider that all his wealthy friends are part of the same tanking economy), it is perhaps overpast the time for Obama to be signaling in which direction he is going to go on the economy. In fact, while Bush is still officially the president, it is no exaggeration that on those issues most pressuring the nation at this time, Obama is the 'de facto' president. Obama made his point about there being only one president at a time, it is time now for him to recognize the fact that he IS the president at this time.

Cracks me up. If he does nothing because there is one president at a time, people complain. If he starts to get his economic team going and his plans for the economy going, people still complain. I guess that is part of being President.

I think the "plan" that others have said he doesn't have (in previous responses) is happening. Why else would he assemble his economic team so quickly. With the economy the way it is, they have to move fast, but I'm sure somebody will have something to say about that as well.

There may be only one president at a time but there's only one "acting" like the president at this time. At least Obama is putting forth a plan which is much more than we can say for Bush. He never stepped up with a plan to stimulate the economy even two months ago when the slide into the abyss started. Remember, he was conspicuously absent while his buddy Hank Paulson and others stepped up to get the bailout plan before Congress. Bush appears not to have a clue. I'm glad Obama is not as clueless.

"cathy", do you actually think that a president, any president, is able to "create" "2.5 million jobs" just by having a "plan"?

I wonder what the comments, by the media and bloggers alike, will look like regarding President Obama in four or five years. Here's an idea: save this page and a couple others on a flash drive, then revisit them in the years to come. I did it with the Bush Administration. Fascinating.

"cathy", do you actually think that a president, any president, is able to "create" "2.5 million jobs" just by having a "plan"?

Posted by: Obama forever! | November 24, 2008 9:37 AM

Well one thing is for certain......that many can be lost by a president without one............W.

Look for organized labor to slip provisions limiting rights to secret ballot elections in unionization drives into unrelated legislation in the First 100 days. They will seek to minimize the impact in a stealth campaign. It will be buried and unpublicized. It may be the price of an industry bail-out package. Don't let the forgotten workers - those who would vote against a particular union if given a chance to do so in privacy - pay the price with their workplace civil rights.

If he has a "plan" and is now assembling his team, why did he put HHS (a second tier cabinet agency) before Treasury and Defense? Why didn't he try to put any of these cures he plans to implement into action when he was a senator?
Maybe his thinking has been clarified while sitting behind fortress Chicago.

Yes, Kent @ 8:50 a.m., it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.

It continues to amaze me that people care more about their now defunct Republican party and "the worst president ever," than they do about fixing the many problems which occurred on W's watch. I am thankful this Thanksgiving that President-elect Obama won by a landslide. We do have intelligent citizens after all.

Hey watcher, it won't be barry much longer it will be Mr. President or President Obama. Get use to it, an let it go. To all the critics of him, at least he is attempting to do something. President Bush seems to be in the locker room with a towel around his neck, as if the game is already over.

Obama's ego cannot handle not being in the spotlight. He has lied about everything including that he believes there is only one president at a time. He promised new faces in Washington, and he has just given us more Clintonistas... and plans for bigger spending than he promised on the campaign trail... he's not change we can believe in. He's worse than the same.

Mr Obama has brought relief to this stock market and hopefully our president, Mr Bush, will see fit start working on a stimulus package however meager to bring some relief to this economy. The objective should be to keep unemployment at the 8% level. It is presently at 6.5%.

Those who say there is only one president at a time are stating the obvious. We have a president who is cataplectic and the Republican's in congress are almost the same.

There is a long road to recovery and Bush is wasting precious time.

Lisa....While I'm sure you wish for more average "faces" in America, the fact remains you need qualified people. Policy is what will change things, not "faces". While the right wishes to believe that Joe the plumber, Joe Six-pack, Joe Schmoe, and Sarah Palin will show the way, they simply remain incompetent.

I wish some of these Republican " whiners " would get over the fact, that America, rode the Republican snake-oil ticket, the McCain-Palin ticket, out of town on a rail !! President-elect Obama will chose whomever he wishes to be in his cabinet and it will all be, good change. Change from the incompetent Bush-Cheney administration to the Obama administration!! How is that for Change? I think it is a seismic change and the only ones that will be displaced, are the zealots, the incompetents and the ideologues, that this incompetent administration has stowed away, for further mischief !!
Come on, all you sensible Republicans, you know it was the best thing for your Party, to chase them, thar vermin from our ship of state !! Otherwise, we would have had a rat-infested ship and you know, that is the unhealthy state, we are now in !! !! Change is Healthy !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

Hey people. All of this crystal ball gazing whether pro or con is for naught. Let's wait and see. That's all we can do now. Make your comments at some point in the future when it's clear as to successes or failures.

"With gasoline prices at a three-year-low, it's time to think about averting the next energy crisis."

This comment is laughable. The dems play politics with energy while the common man suffers. Either they prohibit drilling or they make it available in places where they know recovery is prohibitively expensive. Oil/gas exploration will take 10 years to bring to market, they say, so what's the point?

Meanwhile, they say we need to pursue renewable energy sources that are environmentally friendly. That's a great goal which, incidentally, has been in the works since the 1970s -- and we still have nothing to show for it. In ten years, we KNOW we can bring domestic energy sources to market. How long for renewable sources? We'll have to get back to you on that...

Why didnt Barry tell us before November 7 that his "plan" was Clinton Administration part 3? While Rome (USA) burns, Nero (DEMOCRATIC Congress) fiddles for the past 2 years!! Does anyone have confidence the brain trust (or lack thereof) of Barney "Fife" Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid can solve problems? Watching bumbling politicians grill US Auto executives is the pot calling the kettle all right.

This is something different than Clinton Ad part 3. It's more like HILLARY Clinton woulda done (only she wouldn't have minded that Lani Guinier was being attacked so viciously and woulda fought for her, she woulda told the 'health insurance' profiteers to go take a hike, she woulda supported Jocelyn Elders, she wouldn't have 'ended welfare as we know it'===It's all good!

From the New York Times, Larry Summers speaking to the repeal of Glass-Stegall for which as Treasury Secretary he lobbied in 1999;

Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said in an interview, "At the end of the 20th century, we will at last be replacing an archaic set of restrictions with a legislative foundation for a 21st-century financial system." The measure, he added, "would provide significant benefits to the national economy."

It was of course the repeal of Glass-Stegall that allowed for the destruction of the "firewall" between Commercial & Investment banking, the consequences manifest today in the "banking crisis".

And for good measure let's make the President of the New York Fed treasury secretary.

This insanity has to stop. It is not even December and we know all we need in terms of the Obama administration's status quo relationship with Wall Street.

I would like to know the difference between Obama's stimulus package and the one under Bush. I wish people would stop the hating and come together cause we are all in this mess together.

Funny how gasoline and oil suddenly dropped to a 3 year low ..just after the election.. Hmm could it possibly be the big oil industries were trying to get McSame elected by manipulating the market with high prices? Hmmm just a thought. So much for Drill Drill Drill, guess thats old news now.