President-Elect Meets the Press, Cautiously

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Obama Holds Press Conference on Economic Crisis

President-Elect Barack Obama speaks about the current economic crisis hardships, and ways he plans to help combat them.

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Obama's first news conference was relatively short -- barely more than 20 minutes. After an opening statement, he fielded just nine questions. Most dealt with the economy, but he was also asked about Iran, about where his two daughters will go to school and about what kind of dog the family is going to get.

The setting was itself a departure, more formal than the makeshift stages of the campaign trail, and with far more reporters. The "Change" sign on the front of the lectern had been replaced by one reading "The Office of the President Elect."

Members of Obama's traveling press corps, many on the trail for 21 months, debated how to acknowledge his entrance. The group stood as the curtain parted. Obama looked taken aback and laughed. "Thank you very much, everybody," he said. "Thank you very much."

Standing behind Obama were economic experts and business leaders who were part of his transition economic advisory board. The group spent the morning with Obama and Biden discussing urgent problems such as the automobile industry crisis.

Its members, including former Treasury secretaries Robert E. Rubin and Lawrence H. Summers, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker, will help Obama draft an economic agenda for his first months in office. But their presence also relieves pressure to immediately fill the job of Treasury secretary and other top economic posts.

The president-elect was asked just one foreign policy question, about a congratulatory note he had reportedly received from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "I am aware that the letter was sent," he replied. He said he would review it and respond "appropriately."

During the campaign, Obama said he was prepared to meet with the Iranian leader without preconditions, although he has since softened his language on how he might seek to deal with the Iranian leadership.

He sounded a cautious note generally about Iran. "It's only been three days since the election," he said. "Obviously, how we approach and deal with a country like Iran is not something that we should, you know, simply do in a knee-jerk fashion. I think we've got to think it through."

The historic significance of his ascent to the presidency went unmentioned at the news conference, and there was no nod to the long journey he had taken with many of the reporters in the room.

He did get personal with one local reporter, Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times, asking what happened to her arm, which was in a sling. "I cracked my shoulder running to your speech on election night," she replied.

"Oh, no," Obama said. "I think that was the only major incident during the entire Grant Park celebration."

The president-elect said he had spoken to former presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, and made one awkward aside, noting that he had spoken only to living ex-presidents. "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances," he said, perhaps unaware that Reagan is ailing. Later, he called the former first lady to apologize for what his spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter called a "careless and offhand remark."

He also said he has reread some of the writings of Abraham Lincoln, his favorite president, "who's always an extraordinary inspiration." And he confirmed that an Obama family debate about a new puppy has become a national fixation. "I think it's generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything," he said.

The dog, he said, is a major issue within the family. His daughter Malia, 10, is allergic, so the dog must be hypoallergenic. But he said the family prefers to adopt a pet from a shelter. "But, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," he said.

Not many presidents or presidents-elect have made such a comparison.