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Obama tries to savor the days before Jan. 20

By Liz Sidoti / The Associated Press

President-elect Barack Obama, dropping off his two daughters at their school in Chicago, lifts Sasha out of his vehicle as Malia looks on.
The Associated Press file photo

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Obama courted federal workers Financial overhaul added to Obama’s growing to-do list

In wooing federal employee votes on the eve of the election, Barack Obama wrote a series of letters to workers that offer detailed descriptions of how he intends to add muscle to specific government programs, give new power to bureaucrats and roll back some Bush administration policies.
The letters, sent to employees at seven agencies, describe Obama’s intention to scale back on contracts to private firms, to remove censorship from scientific research, and to champion tougher industry regulation to protect workers and the environment.
Using more specifics than he did on the campaign trail, Obama said he would add staff to erase the backlog of Social Security disability claims. He said he would help Transportation Security Administration officers obtain the same bargaining rights and workplace protections as other federal workers. He even expressed a desire to protect the Environmental Protection Agency’s library system, which the Bush administration tried to eliminate.
— The Washington Post
Barack Obama isn’t president yet, but his must-do list just got longer.
The newest addition to the lengthy list of tasks after taking office: helping oversee the overhaul of the world’s financial regulatory system. That is one of the assignments to the president-elect from current global leaders after their weekend summit, where they pledged action to avoid a repeat of the financial mess that has caused worldwide economic chaos.
“Obama has a tall order,” said Morris Goldstein, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who spent years working at the International Monetary Fund, the world’s financial firefighter.
“He has a lot of things he has to do quickly in a number of areas and doesn’t have a lot of time to think about them,” Goldstein said in an interview Sunday.
That will put a lot of pressure on Obama. He did not participate in the emergency two-day summit that concluded Saturday, instead sending representatives to meet with leaders on the sidelines.
After taking the oath of office Jan. 20, Obama will have to figure out in short order how far his administration is willing to go in revamping oversight of financial companies and products, in the United States and abroad, and nailing down the crucial details.
“Obama has an incredible mountain to climb in the way of the economic and financial situation,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research.
President George W. Bush hosted the summit, where nearly two dozen foreign leaders endorsed broad goals to fend off any future calamities and to revive the global economy.
It will be up to finance ministers to flesh out the details to put such changes in place by the end of March. Leaders plan to hold the next summit by April 30 — just months into Obama’s term.
“I think this puts Obama and a new administration in a very difficult position,” said Steven Schrage, a former Bush administration trade official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“It’s really going to be up to the next administration to figure, do they breathe life into this? Does this go forward? Do they take it in a different direction?”
All the while, the new president will be under immense pressure to bring relief to millions of Americans who have watched jobs disappear, nest eggs shrink, home values plunge, foreclosures zoom upward and banks — along with storied Wall Street firms — laid low by the financial and economic crises.
— The Associated Press

CHICAGO — Barack Obama seems to be savoring his last few days of near-normalcy.

Or at least as normal as life can be for a president-elect living in a house fortified with barriers, traveling in a motorcade, surrounded by Secret Service agents and mapping out the next administration.

Even his barber makes house calls now, depriving Obama of the regular barber shop visits he seemed to enjoy.

Still, after winning the presidency on Nov. 4, Obama has tried to reclaim as much as he can of the family-focused routine he sacrificed while campaigning for nearly two years.

He wakes up in his own bed, heads to the gym for a workout, returns to his house in leafy Hyde Park to shower and change, and then travels to a downtown Chicago office building, 15 minutes away by motorcade. He spends several hours there before returning home to his wife, Michelle, and daughters Malia and Sasha.

The future president and first lady still go to their favorite restaurant, Spiaggia, for Italian food. Obama dropped off the girls at their school two days last week and even attended parent-teacher conferences.

In an interview aired Sunday on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Obama said: “I’m sleeping in my own bed over the last 10 days, which is quite a treat. Michelle always wakes up earlier than I do. So listen to her roaming around and having the girls come in and, you know, jump in your bed. It’s ... it’s a great feeling.”

He plans a family vacation in Hawaii, as usual, over the Christmas holiday.

“I am not going to be spending too much time in Washington over the next several weeks,” Obama said in a recent phone conversation overheard by reporters on his plane.

But on Jan. 20, he will become president and move his family into the White House, where almost nothing will be the same.

Increasing restrictions

“It transforms their lives,” said Thomas Cronin, a presidential scholar at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. “All of them, no matter who they are, yearn to get away for time with family or friends.”

Obama has endured increasing restrictions on his day-to-day activities as he ascended the political ladder at warp speed, from the Illinois Legislature to the U.S. Senate to president-elect. It has not been easy.

After securing the Democratic nomination, he bristled when news organizations insisted on having a “protective pool” of reporters and photographers shadow his every move, even when it required them to sit for hours in vans outside his gym, office and home. He eventually yielded to the inevitable, knowing that nominees, presidents-elect and presidents have agreed to such arrangements for years.

On Halloween, Obama grew annoyed when journalists maneuvered to capture him walking down a Chicago street with Sasha, 7, in costume.

“Leave us alone. Come on, guys,” Obama said. At one point, he and Sasha began jogging to get away.

Michelle Obama told “60 Minutes” about taking the girls to school the day after the election. “Some people were cheering as I walked the kids to the class,” she said. “And I remember Malia saying, ‘That’s embarrassing.’”

For at least four years, and perhaps eight, his life will certainly not be his own.

Obama will not drive a car or go anywhere by himself. It is a good bet he has not since he got Secret Service protection early last year. He will not live alone in the Capitol Hill apartment just off Stanton Park anymore. The trade-off is a much bigger house, rent free, with ample space for his daughters, the first lady and her mother.

Some days he will not venture beyond the gates of the White House compound. Everything he needs is on site or easily brought to him.

On “60 Minutes,” Obama said he had spoken to some former presidents. “All of them recognized that there’s a certain loneliness to the job,” he said.

Still, “all first families try to have some normalcy,” said Philip Henderson, a presidential scholar at Catholic University in Washington.

But even routine matters, such as picking out a puppy for the girls, play out before cameras, lights and microphones.

“This is a major issue,” Obama deadpanned to reporters at his first postelection news conference. The family wants a dog from a shelter that will not trigger Malia’s allergies. “Whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household,” he said.

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