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President-elect Barack Obama is putting hope on hold as reality sets in during the first stages of his transition to the White House. Obama is urging the country to be patient and says the changes he promised will happen, eventually.
On Friday he said, "I think it's very important, in all these key positions, both in the economic team and the national security team, to get it right and not to be so rushed that you end up making mistakes."
Obama's transition chief, John Podesta said today while Obama will focus his time on the economy, the wars and health care, he'll also work to reverse executive orders from President Bush in areas such as stem cell research, and oil and gas drilling.
"He has got an enormous agenda, tremendous problems facing the country and enormous agenda to deal with it. And I think that he is in the process of assembling a team, assembling a strategy and doing the hard work, now, so that he can hit the ground running," Podesta said.
Obama is now using most of his time to study up and prepare for the impending challenges. He's already receiving top-secret international intelligence and daily briefings from the CIA as well as returning calls to foreign leaders.
With so many items on the agenda, we wanted to know what people think is the most pressing matter the Obama administration needs to focus on first, and we found there's a wide variety of views on that.
The economy is clearly job one, but many we spoke with say the way the new administration operates will be just as important to them. Most of the people we spoke with on the streets downtown today do say fixing the economy is the top priority.
Tamara Gilbert, from Henderson, Nev., said, "The amount of people out of work, I would say, would be the number one."
Tita Wofford, from Greensborough, N.C., said, "Until you can make people comfortable that they're not going to lose their jobs. If you can't put food on the table, you can't worry about education, about health, about anything else."
Some suggest the Obama team focus on easing tensions around the world.
Martin Hickerson, of Salt Lake City said Obama should focus on "Peace, international peace."
Others are most concerned about energy independence.
Suzi Jackson, of Greensborough, N.C., said, "And maybe we will have to make a few sacrifices, but it's time for America to be strong again. And we keep getting weaker and weaker and weaker. We need to be more resourceful and we need to be strong. We need to take care of ourselves."
Others say just as important is the need for the country to rally together toward the common good and that the new team needs to communicate honestly and effectively about the problems we face.
Julene Valitutto, of Greensborough, N.C., said, "We now have this president, and we need to get behind him and support him every way we can, and we need to pray for him and what our politicians need to do is in turn stop bickering."
Andrew Benbow, of Salt Lake City, said, "If we know more about what's going on then we'd have more faith in our economy and be able to bolster it a little better. Most people have no idea what's going on at all."
Tamara Gilbert, of Henderson, Nev., said, "Everyone is looking for answers. I think if he unifies, which I think he's doing, the nation, they'll be patient."
A number of people we spoke with echoed the idea that they're looking forward to a more bipartisan approach, a less polarizing approach to solving the nation's problems.
E-mail: jdaley@ksl.com
