Obama urges swift passage of stimulus package
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By John McCormick, Bob Secter and Rick Pearson
Chicago Tribune
(MCT)
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CHICAGO — With the world suddenly hanging on his every word, Barack Obama answered questions for the first time as president-elect Friday, speaking cautiously about a skittish economy and joking that his family’s discussion of a new puppy had become "a major issue."
But he wasn’t careful enough on another subject, making an ill-considered comment about seances and former first lady Nancy Reagan, for which he later issued a personal apology.
In his first meeting with reporters since being elected, Obama sought to reassure the nation and world that the financial crisis has his full attention, while delicately trying to bridge the transition from the current presidency to his own.
"Oh, wow," Obama said, as he walked into a basement ballroom in the Hilton Chicago, expressing surprise at the tradition of reporters standing when a president or president-elect walks into a room.
Obama urged the lame-duck session of Congress to swiftly pass an economic stimulus package. If that does not happen before he takes office, he said it would be a top priority after moving into the White House.
But the Illinois Democrat also tried to make the case that he did not plan to be confrontational with the current administration and a president who was so frequently the target of his attacks on the campaign trail.
"The United States has only one government and one president at a time," he said. "And until Jan. 20th of next year, that government is the current administration."
Obama said he was looking forward to a trip Monday to visit with President George W. Bush at the White House and "substantive discussion."
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"I’m going to go in there with a spirit of bipartisanship and a sense that both the president and various leaders of Congress all recognize the severity of the situation right now and want to get stuff done," he said.
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Obama was flanked by Sen. Joe Biden, the soon to be vice president, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago congressman who will be the White House chief of staff. He also brought with him a football team’s worth of economic advisers, a group he had met with earlier.
On a day when the stock market headed higher, but a new report showed the economy lost 240,000 jobs in October, Obama stressed that the road ahead for him and the nation would not be easy.
"I do not underestimate the enormity of the task that lies ahead," he said. "Some of the choices that we make are going to be difficult."
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The 19-minute appearance was workmanlike and to the point, with Obama calibrating his remarks carefully and largely repeating campaign positions without providing any new guidance on specifics of where he plans to take his administration.
He was his usual serious self, although he did joke a couple times, including an answer on the puppy his daughters want to get.
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Obama sidestepped any detailed discussion of a congratulatory letter he received from Iran’s president, instead reiterating well-honed campaign statements that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons and support for terrorism were unacceptable.
He maintained that presidents — even in their first 100 days — can help the economy get better.
"A new president can do an enormous amount to restore confidence, to move an agenda forward that speaks to the needs of the economy and the needs of middle-class families all across the country," he said.
Roughly 400 reporters, photographers and producers from around the world were in Chicago for Obama’s appearance, a group that had to be limited in size because of the fire code.
The stimulus package he wants would, among other things, extend unemployment benefits and provide money for public works to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure, plus provide financial assistance to state and local governments. It may include provisions to help improve access to credit by consumers and boost the troubled auto industry.
After already backing two costly stimulus initiatives this election year, the White House and congressional Republicans are now resisting a new one.
Some economists have said that it would need to be anywhere between $150 billion and $300 billion to have a significant impact on the economy.
Obama vowed that the sagging economy would not slow him down on the aggressive and expansive domestic agenda that he campaigned on.
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"We cannot afford to wait on moving forward on the key priorities that I identified during the campaign, including clean energy, health care, education and tax relief for middle class families," he said. "My transition team will be working on each of these priorities in the weeks ahead."
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Obama declined to telegraph who he would like to see replace him in the U.S. Senate, saying that the choice was entirely up to Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "I think there’s going to be a lot of good choices out there, but it is the governor’s decision to make," he said.
Obama said he would not be rushed into filling out his Cabinet choices. "There is no doubt that people want to know who is going to make up our team. I want to move with all deliberate haste, but I want to emphasize deliberate as well as haste," he said.
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He has reached out to former presidents for advice in the transition process, Obama said, joking that the list included only the ones that are still living. "I didn’t want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances," he said. An Obama spokesman said the president-elect called Nancy Reagan after the news conference to apologize for "the careless and off-handed remark."
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One humorous exchange came with a Chicago Sun-Times reporter who tripped and hurt her shoulder racing to his Tuesday night victory speech. Obama had asked why she was wearing a sling.
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"I think that was the only major incident during the entire Grant Park celebration," he said.
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Obama also touched on what is shaping up to be one of the highest-profile matters of his transition: the selection of a dog that he promised his daughters after the campaign.
"This is a major issue," he said. "We have two criteria that have to be reconciled."
Obama said his daughter, Malia, is allergic to dogs, so the lucky pooch will have to be hypoallergenic."Our preference is to get a shelter dog," Obama said. "But a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me."
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(Correspondent James Oliphant contributed from Washington and reporter John Chase contributed from Chicago.)
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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): OBAMA
