Expectations For President-elect Obama May Be Unrealistic

President-elect Barack Obama addressed the nation by holding his first news conference. And by no means was he shy in conveying the bleak economic situation the United States finds herself in. According to the recently elected, but not-yet-certified 44th U.S. President:

"The country is facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime and we're going to have to act swiftly to resolve it. We need a rescue plan for the middle class that invests in immediate efforts to create jobs and provides relief to families that are watching their paychecks shrink and their life savings disappear."

By all indications, Obama and his democratically controlled Congress, will have a very narrow window of opportunity available to them to fix this global financial crisis. Probably more than any other president-elect in history, the expectations are extremely, and possibly unrealistically high for him to do something.

Expressing the urgency of the situation, Mr. William Galston, a former White House domestic policy assistant in President Clinton's first term said:

"We're in a race against time to prevent a global financial meltdown, and I think everybody knows it."

Well... maybe everybody in the Washington, DC beltway knows it... but is that message really coming across clearly to the "I-want-my-money... and-I-want-it-now" populace? And, in spite of Obama telegraphing during his acceptance speech, and again during the press conference that he is not yet the president, and when he becomes president, the process to get out-of-this-mess will be slow and painful... the hurting masses who voted for him, aren't hearing him, and many are looking to him to turn the economy around, pronto!

Look for him to name his Treasury Secretary post-haste. That may give him a little breathing room... but not much.