Barack Obama’s first press conference as president-elect was, as with his victory speech, an exercise in expectations management. By laying out so starkly the bad economic news, he clearly hopes that he can avoid people thinking that he’ll be able to turn things round instantly. He did, though, stress that if no stimulus bill is passed before he is inaugurated he will make pushing for one his first priority as president.
Obama suggested that it will be some time before he names his key cabinet appointments. There does seem to be no consensus on who he will appoint to Treasury and State even if everyone is pretty sure that Jim Steinberg will be the natioanls security advisor..
There was a more relaxed Obama on display than we have seen on the trail in answering some of the non-economic questions. He bantered about the trade-offs in picking a dog and cracked jokes with the reporters.
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