Preparing for the Obama Era

A uniformed Secret Service officer moves a traffic cone to block off a barricade to the new Obama transition headquarters in Washington. (By Dominic Bracco Ii -- The Washington Post)
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Despite heavy criticism from McCain that Obama was presumptively "measuring the drapes" in the White House before being elected, he set up a transition operation headed by John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton.

Hess said Obama ignored the conventional wisdom to "not mention the transition, or else people will think you're actually preparing to be president."

Within three days of his election, Obama announced a full transition team and named a chief of staff, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), who brings congressional and White House experience.

Obama seems determined to avoid some of the mistakes of the last Democrat to hold the office; Clinton's transition after his 1992 election is considered one of the most chaotic in recent times. Obama held a news conference Friday that ensured his first public comments as president-elect were focused on his top priority, the economy. Clinton generally avoided reporters, and his first impromptu remarks to the media, on gays in the military at a Veterans Day event, set his administration off on a divisive sidetrack.

That said, there are many hazards ahead for the Obama transition, and ill-fated or poorly executed nominations for Cabinet positions are only one.

Many decisions about the economy cannot wait for Obama to take office on Jan. 20, and despite the efforts at cooperation, the president and the president-elect are hardly in agreement.

Fratto and other White House aides have emphasized that Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and other senior administration officials will still have the final call on decisions about financial rescue efforts. "He certainly will want to take into account what the next administration thinks about the actions that he's taken," Fratto said, referring to Paulson. "But those are decisions that he's going to have to make on his own based on what he's hearing."

A financial summit among world leaders Saturday in Washington could bring out the differences in sharp relief, although Bolten pledges cooperation.

"We are trying to coordinate as closely as we can with the Obama folks so that they are at a minimum apprised and hopefully completely on board with the strategy that we're pursuing, because this summit is really only the first in a series," Bolten said.

Paul C. Light, a transition expert at New York University who said Obama's challenge makes FDR's transition "seem less daunting by comparison," expects other problems.

The Bush White House has a "well-deserved reputation for secrecy," Light said, which he expects to come into conflict with the desire of the Obama team for classified information, ongoing policy memoranda and ways to "penetrate the day-to-day workings of the administration."

"Obama is going to want more access than Bush is willing to give," Light said.

He said there is also a natural friction as the Obama team begins the search for regulations and executive orders it wants to overturn as quickly as possible, and as Bush policymakers try to find ways to make their impact more permanent. There is understandable suspicion on both sides, he said.

For now, however, he agrees with the other experts on the high level of cordiality on both sides.

"It really is a nice moment for the United States to show how the transfer of power goes," he said.