Obama: We must act swiftly

Chicago - From the moment reporters stood as he entered the room, the transition from hard-charging candidate to "Mr President-elect" Barack Obama was underway as the trappings of power envelop the next US leader.

At his first post-election news conference on Friday in a basement ballroom of Chicago's Hilton hotel, the man who has broken America's ultimate colour bar gave an assured overview of the enormous challenges he will soon inherit.

Added gravitas was lent by the presence behind Obama of 16 economic advisers including such luminaries as former Treasury secretaries Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, and the towering ex-Federal Reserve chairperson Paul Volcker.

Striding to a lectern that bore a plaque reading "The Office of the President-Elect," Obama looked a little abashed as the assembled press gave him a presidential-style welcome upon his entry into the ballroom.

"You've been sitting on the plane all this time. He's going to have to get used to this," Robert Gibbs, one of Obama's top advisers who is in line to be White House press secretary, told reporters who travelled with the candidate for 21 months across the nation and beyond.

In roughly 20 minutes, Obama gave a rapid tour of the economic and foreign policy crises that will be his alone to handle when he succeeds President George W Bush on January 20.

But the Democrat, looking refreshed despite the heavy bags under his eyes, acknowledged that visitors to his new transition website - www.change.gov - ask one question more than any other.

"With respect to the dog, this is a major issue," he said, having promised a puppy to his daughters Malia and Sasha once the election was over, regardless of its outcome.

Obama said they were looking at a breed that would not irritate 10-year-old Malia's allergies, and preferred to adopt a dog from a shelter.

"But obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," said the son of a black African father and a white mother from Kansas.

"So whether we're going to be able to balance those two things I think is a pressing issue on the Obama household," the president-elect said, confirming also that his wife Michelle would soon be "scouting" for Washington schools.

Former presidents

Obama expounded too on the advice he is taking from former presidents.

"In terms of speaking to former presidents, I've spoken to all of them that are living," he said, realizing the "living" part might give rise to speculation of a return to one former first lady's nocturnal activities.

"I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about, you know, doing any seances," said Obama. He later called former first lady Nancy Reagan to apologise.

Obama spokesperson Stephanie Cutter said the president-elect called Mrs Reagan to apologise for the remark the spokesperson characterised as "careless and offhanded."

There were other fractures closer to home. Obama noticed that Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun-Times had her arm in a sling. The paper's redoubtable Washington bureau chief broke her shoulder when she fell heavily while running through Chicago's Grant Park to catch the Democrat's victory speech on Tuesday.

"I think that was the only major incident during the entire Grant Park celebration," Obama said, reflecting on a giddy night when upwards of 200 000 supporters screamed with joy at his triumph over Republican John McCain.

Aides said fireworks had been planned for the Grant Park party but were cancelled on Obama's orders, to reflect the gravity of the economic crisis that he is about to manage from his desk in the Oval Office.

The president-elect's inaugural news conference came hours after the US government announced that 240 000 workers lost their jobs last month to drive the national unemployment rate to a 14-year high of 6.5%.

"Tens of millions of families are struggling to figure out how to pay the bills and stay in their homes," said Obama, who draws inspiration from two other presidents who went through trials by fire - Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D Roosevelt.

"Their stories are an urgent reminder that we are facing the greatest economic challenge of our lifetime, and we must act swiftly," he said, looking sombre but also remarkably eager to get on with the job.

- AFP