It's baptism by fire for Obama

Lisa Van Dusen |Monday, 12 January, 2009

There must be mornings these days when Barack Obama looks out his window at the Hay Adams, across Lafayette Park to the White House, and thinks, "I should have gone to Disney World."

At a news conference at his transition headquarters Wednesday, where the president-elect unveiled his chief performance officer, the post-announcement Q&A started with an ironic, "Welcome to Washington," from a reporter. Obama responded with an equally ironic, "It's great to be here."

Obama's not entirely new to Washington, but being the change behemoth with the 82-per-cent approval rating draws a whole new kind of welcome wagon. Already, it was that kind of week.

It started with the withdrawal of Bill Richardson as Commerce secretary nominee over a grand jury investigation, segued into the public slamming of former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta as nominee for CIA director by fellow Democrats. Meanwhile, embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was all over everywhere on Capitol Hill without ever leaving home in the form of Roland Burris, his legally appointed senator and human shield.

Anyone who thought winning the toughest nomination campaign and then the toughest election campaign in memory would be the hard part, must be slapping themselves now. There's a very good reason why one of the symptoms of transitionitis is campaign nostalgia: Some days, pre-governing, like governing, truly sucks.

When you come down to earth after a successful election and thud into to the entrenched guerrilla warfare of a government town, there aren't too many days when that schedule blocked out in 15-minute increments stays intact past noon.

As tough as Chicago may be, Washington is arguably tougher in its own way because the stakes are so much higher and the currency of power gets traded in ways that aren't always obvious.

During the nomination and election campaigns, there was always the question of whether Obama, if he won, would be able to govern by the same rules that applied on the road and that generally prevailed from the top of his organization to the street-level volunteers whereby winning wasn't worth it if it meant resorting to old-style tactics.

If there was any doubt, last week proved that not only is he not in Kansas anymore, he's not even in Chicago.

Along with the Burris soap opera, the Panetta panning (the Obama team neglected to inform Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, incoming chairperson of the Senate intelligence committee, of the appointment, which may or may not have helped . . . likely not) and the Richardson implosion, there was Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, another Democrat, saying, with a breathtaking dose of denial, "If Obama steps over the bounds, I will tell him . . . I do not work for Barack Obama." Maybe it's more like Dodge City.

By noon on Wednesday, it must have seemed like excellent timing for a chinwag with the four other living presidents at the White House; an opportunity to commiserate with an exclusive support group of fellow survivors.

The media avail that preceded the lunch may not have been the most awkward Oval Office photo op on record but it was right up there in the top five with Richard Nixon shaking hands with Elvis.

Jimmy Carter was hovering almost out of the shot, looking like he was being timed out, which maybe he was. Then the lights went out just as the president-elect was starting to talk. Thankfully, Bill Clinton broke the tension by observing, apropos of the first floor covering, "I just love that rug." Maybe it's more like a waking nightmare where you can hear late Ronald Reagan-era image guru Mike Deaver laughing from photo-op heaven.

By Thursday, the unveiling of his economic stimulus package held out the brief premise of a substantive diversion, until members of the Senate finance committee, again, notably the Democrats, started picking apart the tax cuts in the plan.

This happens in every transition and the only way to avoid a weekis horribilis would be to anticipate every possible exploitable downside or unintended consequence to every major appointment, policy announcement, family decision and public pronouncement, which is impossible in practice but ideal in theory.

Can you even aim for the level of preemptive paranoia required for a zero tolerance policy on unforced errors and still be the guy who eschews the old-style tactics?

Welcome to Washington, Mr. President-elect, where even when it's more like a big high school, hazing runs its course.