The View From Here . . .

By Bob Morgan, Jr.

We are now beginning to see an outline of the incoming Obama Administration. What we have been shown so far is reassuring to many of us, but hardcore supporters of the new president may have a few hard questions to ask.

The President-elect offered up his economic team in late November and it certainly has a number of familiar faces. The new Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, currently president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, served in the Clinton Administration under Treasury Secretaries Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers. and is generally regarded as fiscally conservative. (Indeed, Mr. Geithner has worked closely in his current position with Bush Administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.) Mr. Summers himself will be the head of the White House Economic Council. Another protege of Mr. Rubin who served in the Clinton Administration, Peter Orszag, has been named Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

So far, the economic proposals offered up by Team Obama are pretty uncontroversial, largely focusing on stimulus programs to get the country out of the current recession. Perhaps most significant, the new administration seems to be signaling that, while it will go ahead with the "middle class" tax cut for 95% of wage earners, it will not insist on increased taxes on high income individuals during the time of economic troubles. This should at least be helpful in avoiding a further selloff in the stock market by investors before the end of the 2008 taxable year.

Of course, the rubber meets the road when the new economic policymakers have to confront the epidemic of bailout fever now sweeping the country. Hard on the heels of the enormous financial rescue plans, the automobile industry and state and local governments are also seeking help. At some point, someone is going to have to draw the line, since the treasury's resources are not infinite and deficits do matter at some level.

On foreign policy, Mr. Obama also seems to be steering a centrist course. His most significant appointment, Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, would again signal a vigilant approach to foreign policy. (Mrs. Clinton famously claimed in the campaign that she was more ready than Mr. Obama to answer a 3 am call about a foreign policy emergency.) Mr. Obama's decision to retain as Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who presided over the successful surge in Iraq, would also indicate a fairly hard-line approach to national security, as would his appointment as National Security Adviser of Retired General James Jones, who made an appearance with John McCain during the campaign. As the editors of National Review suggest, it is difficult to see how this team is likely to oversee a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq.

While the Obama appointments have attracted strong support among centrist Democrats and wary approval among Republicans (even Rush Limbaugh applauded the Hillary Clinton pick), this middle of the road course also threatens to alienate Obama true believers. In December 2007, Senator Obama declared on the campaign trail that "the real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result." Now that many of the same players are in fact returning to Washington, will this be the change Mr. Obama's strong followers can believe in?