President-elect Barack Obama will inherit an inauspicious slate of challenges, the likes of which have not confronted incoming presidents in decades, when he begins his term in January, an interdisciplinary panel of professors agreed. The panel, "Change? The 2008 Elections: Outcomes, Consequences, and Next Steps," evaluated the consequences of Obama's Tuesday victory in terms of executive advice, trade policy, health-care policy and social and welfare policy Friday before an overflowing audience in the Rockefeller Center.
Despite clear majorities in the electoral college and popular votes, the American public did not grant Obama a mandate to lead, several panelists said.
"The only mandate from this election was repudiation of Republican institution and a call for change," government professor Dean Lacy said.
The Democratic victories in the Senate and House of Representatives are not necessarily attributable to Obama's presence at the top of the ticket, government professor Linda Fowler said. Should Obama fail to realize the independent victories of each of the elected legislators, he risks jeopardizing his relationship with the Democratic majority in Congress. Few members of Congress believe they owe their victories to Obama, she said, and Congress will exert its power as an equal branch of government.
"In the past several years, Congress generally went through an extraordinary period of quiescence as a governing body," Fowler said. "Democrats who won vacant seats were given the invitation to come here to fix this mess -- not to mandate specific policies."
Obama should be cautious of squandering his supporters' votes and must try to govern from the center, not the left, panelists said.
"The real challenge is that the center of gravity of the Republican party has shifted to the right, leaving fewer Republicans for Obama to work with," Fowler said. "Democrats will have to pass legislation pretty much all on their own."
Obama should seize the opportunity to pass laws during the early stages of his term, Lacy said. Lacy also listed possible appointees to secretary of the treasury, including Timothy Geithner '83, current president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Lawrence Summers, former secretary of the treasury, and Gov. John Corzine, D-N.J.
Panelists also discussed the potential collapse of the automobile industry and the subsequent threat to millions of jobs. Obama's aid to the industry should come in the form of incentives to create more fuel-efficient cars, history professor Annelise Orleck said.
Obama has claimed that addressing the ailing economy is his first priority for the presidency, economics professor Andrew Samwick, director of the Rockefeller Center, said. Obama's economic proposals may include a small tax increase for high-income workers and a green tax swap, a reduction in payroll tax rates offset by an increase in gasoline taxes, Samwick said.
Obama reiterated the need for the urgent passage of a new economic stimulus package during his first press conference as president-elect on Friday.
"A stimulus package must encourage things such as new energy infrastructure or helping crumbling infrastructure," Samwick said, emphasizing the need to for a proactive, not reactive approach. "It will be very nice to see the package be one in which we are making investments rather than just propping up consumers."
Government professor Daryl Press stressed that Obama must rethink America's military commitments upon close examination of foreign policy.
"We are taking on obligations without asking our ability to pay," Press said.
The military currently assumes too big a role in U.S. foreign policy, Press said. The Obama administration should weaken military involvement in humanitarian issues and press U.S. intelligence organizations to take the lead in the global war on terror, he added.
