Hard choices and challenges follow triumph
After a victory of historic significance, Barack Obama will inherit problems of historic proportions.
Not since Franklin D Roosevelt was inaugurated at the depths of the Great Depression in 1933 has a new president been confronted with the challenges Obama will face as he starts his presidency.
At home, Obama must revive an economy experiencing some of the worst shocks in more than half a century.
Abroad, he has pledged to end the war in Iraq and defeat al-Qaeda and the Taliban. He ran on a platform to change the country and its politics.
Now he must begin to spell out exactly how.
Obama's winning percentage appears likely to be the largest of any Democrat since Lyndon Johnson's 1964 landslide. And like Johnson, he will govern with sizable congressional majorities.
But with those advantages come hard choices.
Interpreting his mandate will be only one of several critical decisions Obama must make as he prepares to assume the presidency. Others include transforming his campaign promises on taxes, health care, energy and education into a set of legislative priorities.
Obama's victory speech touched the themes of unity, reconciliation and hope that were at the heart of his candidacy.
Asking for the help of all Americans to tackle the country's most serious challenges, he prepared supporters and opponents alike for patience before they succeed.
"The road ahead will be long," he said.
"Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even 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."
Obama's ability to manage relationships with Democratic with Republicans and with impatient liberal constituencies will have a lasting impact on his presidency.
Can he, for example, fulfill his promise to govern in a unifying and inclusive way, and yet also push an ambitious progressive agenda?
The first African American elected to the presidency, Obama built his victory with a new Democratic coalition. To the party's base of African Americans, Latinos and women, Obama added younger voters and wealthier, better-educated ones. That helped him raise his support among white voters -- a traditional weakness of recent Democratic presidential candidates.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R) said the senator from Illinois can claim a personal mandate but should not assume the results signified an ideological election.
Rep Rahm Emanuel (Ill.), the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, argued that "no crisis should go to waste," meaning that the depth of the country's problems create an opportunity for the next president to offer big solutions on issues like energy and health care.
Emanuel is under consideration to become White House chief of staff, but he said his comments represented his own view, not Obama's.
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.
Obama advisers take seriously the senator's rhetoric about governing in a bipartisan fashion.
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 US$700 billion for a financial rescue package, the deficit could approach US$1 trillion or more next fiscal year.
In the final stages of the campaign, Obama spoke in generalities about scrubbing the federal budget line by line, looking for cuts.
Clinton and Carter both had difficult relationships with Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, but Galston said Obama might be able to negotiate a productive relationship because he did not challenge Democratic orthodoxy on his way to the White House.
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