On Election Night, Barack Obama told thousands of cheering supporters in Chicago that “change has come to America.”
The President-elect demonstrated that convincingly in announcing his national security team. Standing with him at Monday's news conference in Chicago was the prime member of that team, his nominee for Secretary of State, Sen. Hillary Clinton. Though they had exchanged angry charges during the campaign, though their differences to many seemed irreconcilable, now they appeared to be good friends, ready and eager to work together. Indeed, the President-elect introduced her as “my dear friend” and he promised “a new dawn of American leadership.”
“I will give this assignment, your administration and our country my all,” Sen. Clinton pledged.
If some cynics might regard this new relationship as hypocrisy on the part of both people, it didn't give me that feeling. Twenty-seven days after an election that transformed our country, we were witnessing two tough, ambitious adversaries burying the hatchet for the good of the country they love. If there was peril in this for the future of either person, they didn't seem to be thinking about it.
Sen. Clinton was giving up the seat in the Senate she earned for a chance to meet a greater challenge working for the man she had worked so hard to defeat. And the President-elect was completely at ease, even when a reporter suggested that he had come a long way from the campaign moment when he jeered at Mrs. Clinton's foreign policy experience as being nothing but a series of “teas” with foreign leaders.
With a smile, Obama said he didn't blame the press for trying to cause a ruckus by bringing up a charge made during the heat of the campaign. “I understand,” the new chief executive said, “you're having fun and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not -- I'm not faulting you.” And, later, they walked out of the room, arms across each other's backs -- a picture of unity.
There is a feeling of serenity about this man that was apparent at this defining press conference. He radiated pride over his appointments: Robert Gates at Defense, James Jones as National Security Adviser, Eric Holder, Attorney General; Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security; Susan Rice, UN Ambassador.
President-elect Obama was asked whether, by appointing a cabinet of strong personalities, he was asking for trouble when quarrels erupted behind the scenes. He said he wanted people to be honest with him, to express their opinions when they disagreed. He said he valued debate. However, he made it clear that, ultimately, he would make the decisions.
“As Harry Truman said,” the President-elect asserted, “the buck will stop with me.”
Obama is a great admirer of Abraham Lincoln, who surrounded himself in his cabinet with strong personalities who had been his political rivals. He certainly seems to be doing something similar with the Clinton appointment.
But, ultimately, Obama will be judged not by the quality of his appointments or his bipartisan spirit or his brilliant rhetoric. Actions, not words, will test his vision and his promises. These early days are reassuring. Although the economy may be failing, although foreign crises seem to be multiplying, this man is calm. On Jan. 20, 2009, he takes the helm and Americans -- and many others throughout the world -- will be rooting for him to succeed.
