It was wonderful to watch president-elect Obama's "Hello, Chicago" speech. It was sheer inspiration.
However, after watching his first post-election press conference, and especially hearing about all the alleged "policy and personality battles" over appointment of his future cabinet, one begins to get worried about the delivery of his promise of change.
One Chinese mainland friend reminded me, when we were comparing notes about the Nov 7 press conference, that we should first of all thank him for not being like some other politicians in attacking China - itself running mounting jobless figures because of rising cost and dwindling orders - for having stolen jobs from America.
But this is not campaign time any more. Not blaming other countries for the problems at home seems a minimal requirement for being a serious leader.
For me, the virtue of Obama's 19-minute press conference is his clear sense of priority. The economy, of course.
If there can be a relatively swift fix of the American economic woes, as the president-elect has promised, not just the American middle class, but many more middle-class and poor people in the world can share the benefit. They have all lost money or jobs in 2008.
The latest data show that in October, the US economy shed 240,000 jobs in one month, following rises in unemployment in the foregoing nine months. Having seen a combined sales slump of 32 percent, the big three auto companies are seeking large federal bailouts now.
It is clever to appoint an advisory board, now consisting of 17 members including billionaire Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, while the choice of the next treasury secretary somehow still takes time to decide. The rumor is that "power brokers" are split over two or more candidates for the job.
In normal practice, an advisory board may suffice during the transition period, because there is only one president at a time.
But we know what advisers do. They mainly raise ideas and give opinions. But in time of a crisis, the world is not short of advisers, but of people who can execute a good strategy.
The kind of people that the world is looking forward to are doers - people who are willing to work long hours every day, plus traveling long distances, to balance all interests with due care, to tackle the right problems one after another and have them solved.
Time is pressing. If it still takes time to come up with a really excellent treasury nomination, the president-elect may consider, at his next press conference, to parade a doers' team, joined by men and women with experience in executing turn-around economic and business programs.
He may have three really small task forces - one to ensure that all banks are back to their normal lending business, without which economies in the world can have no hope of their recovery.
A second task force to deliver some contingency programs for the people who have lost homes and jobs.
And a third task force to work out a program to combine the long-term financial stimulus with the promise of new energy. Only that can keep generating demand for new investment, new technologies and new jobs in the United States.
It does not matter, actually, whether any person's background is too tied to the Wall Street or to any administration in the time of loose regulation and unbridled financial innovation, so long as he or she can execute ideas and has a sense of present responsibility.
It is in this context one is obliged to put on record some words of praise for the outgoing treasury secretary Henry Paulson.
For me, hardly anyone has rendered more help to the future of the United States than him, in the way that, during his limited tenure, he courageously broke the bubble in its entirety rather than trying to wrap it up in gift paper and leave it to the next president.
E-mail: younuo@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 11/10/2008 page4)
