Editorial:

Obama urges unity

Before a jubilant crowd of more than a million, Barack Hussein Obama claimed his place in history as America's first black president, summoning a dispirited nation to unite in hope against the 'gathering clouds and raging storms' of war and economic woe. On an extraordinary day in the life of America, people of all colors and ages waited for hours Tuesday in frigid temperatures to witness a young black man with a foreign-sounding name take command of a nation founded by slaveholders. It was a scene watched in fascination by many millions — perhaps billions — around the world. 'We gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord,' the nation's 44th president said. The presidency passed to Democrat Obama from Republican George W. Bush at the stroke of noon, marking one of democracy's greatest gifts: the peaceful transfer of power.

But a stark transfer all the same. In one of the new administration's first acts, Obama ordered federal agencies to halt all pending regulations until further review — this after Bush's final weeks raised heated debate over rushing new rules into effect on the way out the door. And even though new White House aides struggled to find offices and work intercoms, an overhauled Web site was running under Obama's banner within minutes of his swearing-in. 'Change has come to America. Obama plunges into his new job in earnest on Wednesday after capping inaugural festivities at a national prayer service in the morning, meeting with his economic team and Iraq advisers and welcoming a stream of public visitors into the White House while Congress gives his economic revival plan a going-over and takes up the nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton to be secretary of state.

For all the new president's call to joint effort, it is political reality that it will largely be up to Obama himself to meet soaring expectations — both those he has created for himself and those others have placed on him unbidden.

In the Oval Office awaits the workaday, hard-nosed business of the daily governance of a nation of 304 million. And while Washington celebrated, events kept moving: Wall Street slid, news surfaced that U.S. carmaker Chrysler could be purchased in part by Italian auto giant Fiat, and prosecutors at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, sought to suspend all war-crimes trials pending Obama's guidance.

Congress already has given Obama $350 billion in new financial-industry bailout money and is fast-tracking a massive economic stimulus bill to be worth $825 billion or more. And Bush has ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops to go to Afghanistan this year, adding to 32,000 already there. But these moves are hardly the last word on the big issues of the day. And some of Obama's attention to even those things will undoubtedly be deferred to crises — a natural disaster, an overseas conflagration — that can pop onto the scene unexpectedly and consume enormous amounts of White House energy. His transition also produced some missteps that raised questions about whether Obama's highly disciplined, perfectionist organization that proved brilliant at winning an election will be equally brilliant at governing. Obama's team overlooked known problems in the backgrounds of two Cabinet nominees — Bill Richardson for Commerce and Timothy Geithner for Treasury. They also flubbed the introduction to Congress of Leon Panetta as CIA director. Obama also was tripped up by controversy surrounding the appointment of his successor in the Senate.

Rediff Pakistan | http://www.rediff.com.pk