President-Elect Barack Obama Faces Historic Test
First African American President Faces Two Wars, Economic Crisis
Nov 5, 2008
President-elect Barack Obama, having made history as the first African American elected president of the United States, now faces problems of historic proportions.
Other presidents have taken the helm of a nation at war or suffering the effects of an economic recession. Obama, however, faces not one war but two and the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression that began on Wall Street but has now taken its toll on millions of average Americans.
Making his job all that much harder, Obama inherits a federal budget that could run up a $1 trillion deficit, leaving him with limited resources not only to tackle current problems but to deliver on campaign promises that the National Taxpayer's Union estimates would cost $287 billion to implement.
Bailouts and Iraq War
Obama will take the reins of a government that has already pledged to spend $700 billion to rescue the nation’s financial institutions and now is pondering billions more in aid to other industries and to home owners.
The Iraq war alone requires another $10 billion a month.
That Other War
In Afghanistan, the war against the Taliban and the hunt for Osama bin Laden continue and Obama himself said additional troops may need to be diverted to that region even as the U.S. draws down in Iraq. A nuclear Iran and North Korea and an aggressive Russia also require attention.
Jobs, Immigration and Health Care
Add to it all more than 45 million Americans living without health insurance, a dysfunctional immigration system that’s left at least 12 million people living illegally in the country and Obama’s own promises to cut taxes on the middle class, reform education and broaden access to medical care.
He may face the need to replace a U.S. Supreme Court Justice while wrestling with the on-going debates on Capitol Hill over education reform and the rewriting of America’s immigration policy.
Help From Democratic Congress Possible
Obama’s fellow Democrats rode the same wave of voter disenchantment with an unpopular Republican president and a desire for change in a decade-long Republican rule of Capitol Hill to pick up seats in both the House and Senate in this year’s elections.
History shows that one-party rule is no guarantee of cooperation between the Hill and the White House, though House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emerged from the election talking about the need for a more centrist treatment of the nation’s problems and for the need for patience among expectant voters.
“The fact is, this president goes into office with more expectations than any president I can remember in my lifetime,” Pelosi told reporters the day after the Nov. 4, 2008, election. “So we have to choose our priorities very carefully about what is achievable, what can be done in the best possible way.
“I think it's important for the American people to know that many of our options have been diminished because of the downturn in the economy,” Pelosi said. “We have a lot less money to draw upon.”
Tempering Expectations
Obama is now using a new website to keep the public informed about his plans to cope with many of these problems. But ever since election night, he has been cautioning supporters that it will take time to accomplish anything.
“The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep,” Obama said on election night. “We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America - I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you - we as a people will get there.”
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