EconomistMom.com

First, congratulations to President-Elect Obama.  We are truly participating in an historic moment and all have a reason to celebrate.  And hopefully there is much more good history to make going forward.

Yesterday Stan Collender wrote in his “Fiscal Fitness” column in Roll Call that there has been:

…no credible leadership on the credit and stock market crises and economic downturn at a time when the country desperately seems to want it.

At this point in its last year in office, no one in the Bush administration, including the president, is able to provide this leadership. If it ever existed at all, that opportunity passed a long time ago. And the House and Senate leaders on this issue don’t have the national credentials to take control.

That leaves only one person: whoever is elected president.

Unlike the situation in almost all previous elections, the country is likely to look to the president-elect for guidance and reassurance almost immediately after the results have been announced.

Stan is right.  This morning the inside-the-Beltway policy wonks (and the media as well of course) are excitedly, anxiously speculating about who will be in President Obama’s cabinet–but in particular, who we expect will immediately be put to work on economic policy in the (very short) “transition” to the Obama Administration.

The real work on the economy has to begin right away, and it’s going to involve hard choices and a coming together of lots of ideas and personalities that are pretty out of practice in terms of “getting along.”  And I believe President-elect Obama understands the critical need for cooperation, compromise, and broadly-shared sacrifice in any solution to our economy’s very challenging problems, and he understands that Americans are now relying on him to encourage that coming together.  From his victory speech last night:

This is your victory.

And I know you didn’t do this just to win an election. And I know you didn’t do it for me.

You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime — two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century…

There’s new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair.

The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in 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.

There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can’t solve every problem.

But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation…

It can’t happen without you, without a new spirit of service, a new spirit of sacrifice.

So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism, of responsibility, where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.

Let us remember that, if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers.

In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people. Let’s resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long.

As the Washington Post’s Dan Balz writes today, Obama’s first challenge on economic policy will be how to balance his “big and ambitious agenda” with a feasible “strategy to reach those goals over time”–in other words, how to listen to the advice of all of his economic advisers, both the Jared Bernstein (bigger government) types and the Bob Rubin (fiscal hawk) types:

Obama advisers, who agreed to talk about the future only on the condition that they not be quoted, said they are well aware of the dangers of interpreting the results as a mandate for unabashed liberal government.

One top adviser recalled what happened after the Democrats regained control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections and suggested they were ready to end the war in Iraq and enact a bold Democratic agenda. “We’re all wary of the lessons of 2006, when expectations were raised so high prematurely,” he said.

This adviser said Obama knows that he must move strategically to balance his pledges to govern inclusively while promoting a progressive agenda. “It’s up to him to educate people on a strategy to move forward.” Part of that strategy, he added, will be persuading people to be patient about the pace of change.

Obama advisers take seriously the senator’s rhetoric about governing in a bipartisan fashion. They are ready for potential conflict with some Democratic constituencies or with some liberal Democrats in Congress, whose pent-up demand for action may clash with Obama’s priorities, and are prepared to say no.

Obama has yet to truly confront the realities of a domestic platform that calls for significant increases in federal spending and a fiscal problem that has worsened dramatically. Given the projected spending of $700 billion for a financial rescue package and hundreds of billions more for an economic stimulus package that Democrats say is needed, the deficit could approach $1 trillion or more next fiscal year, even without any of Obama’s other priorities.

In the final stages of the campaign, Obama spoke in generalities about scrubbing the federal budget line by line, looking for cuts. He has yet to identify specific reductions, but soon after he is sworn in, his administration will have to present an alternative budget. At that point, Obama will reveal more of who he is. 

And toward the end of last night’s (brilliant and inspiring) speech, Obama clearly articulated that who he is and who he intends to be as President is a “uniter”:

…while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress.

As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, we are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

…That’s the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we’ve already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow…

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves — if our children should live to see the next century…what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

So there’s plenty of hope and inspiration for all of us.  Now we just have to get to the real work, working together.