Obama's Opportunity: "Out of great crisis comes great opportunity."

WP political blog, "The Fix," by Chris Cillizza
Obama's Opportunity

When Barack Obama is sworn in as the nation's 44th president tomorrow at noon, he will inherit a country in the midst of a financial crisis of seemingly limitless proportions, a nation seeking to come to grips with its proper role in the world, and a series of international conflicts from Iraq to Israel. All told, it represents the greatest political opportunity any president has had to fundamentally reshape the county at home and abroad in modern history.

Why?

Great crisis -- and it's hard to argue America is in anything but such a situation these days -- calls for great action, sweeping, elemental changes that in times of less turmoil would never pass muster. Obama clearly grasps this odd sort of mandate -- a message from the American people to do something, anything to change the direction of the country -- and sees himself in the mold of the most transformational presidents, most notably Abraham Lincoln.

"We have kicked this can down the road," Obama said in an interview with Post editors and reporters last week. "We are now at the end of the road."

That sense that urgent action is required commingles in Obama with a distinct confidence (his detractors describe it as arrogance) that he is the kind of person who can bend the political system -- and the history of partisan politics -- to his will in order to tackle massive problems ranging from the recent economic collapse to needed reforms in long-standing entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

"I set the tone," Obama said last week in response to a question about his Administration's ability to peacefully coexist despite a gaggle of oversized egos and a management structure that some have criticized as duplicative. "If the tone is set that we bring as much intellectual firepower to a problem...that we make decisions based on facts and evidence then people will adapt to that culture," the president-elect insisted.

Recent polling suggests Obama will have the opportunity and, perhaps more importantly, the time to do big things....

***

Politics is a fickle game. To date, Obama has played it as well as any politician could. And, he is putting down a big bet that the public's desire for change will overcome its hesitancy about seismic changes in the way government works in daily life. "I hope to model a way of interacting with people who are not like you and who don't agree with you that changes the temper of politics," said Obama.

That's a huge task. But, out of great crisis comes great opportunity.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/2009/01/obamas_opportunity.html?hpid=topnews