Obama moves quickly, purposefully

President Obama’s first week in power was a whirl of activity, but the orders and pronouncements flowing from the White House had little to do with the central mission of his presidency: overhauling healthcare, weaning the nation from foreign oil and fixing the economy.

Obama’s early moves carried huge symbolic value. On his first full day he called in top military advisors and pressed them for a faster timetable for withdrawing combat troops from Iraq. He announced that he would close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He rolled out new policies meant to curb the power of lobbyists.

But those actions had another purpose: clearing some issues off the table for the time being so that he can turn his attention to thornier projects, such as healthcare, that have confounded past presidents.

“He is definitely buying time and space,” said Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster.

Obama’s initial moves have a certain political utility. They aligned with his campaign promises to break sharply from the Bush administration.

His actions also helped to defuse emotionally charged issues, even if the practical effects won’t be felt right away, if at all. Guantanamo, for example, may not be shuttered for a year while the new administration decides the fate of its 245 detainees. And his timetable for an Iraq drawdown calls for all combat troops to be removed by mid-2010.

Obama is signaling through these moves that he is making major changes in policy, even if they will take a while to take effect. He is tacitly saying: “It isn’t going to happen at this instant moment. But it’s not something that I’m sidestepping or re-evaluating now that I’m commander in chief,” Hart said.

The freshly inaugurated president also set a new tone that the rest of the world can’t help but notice.

“An order from the White House sends an immediate message,” said the Rev. Richard L. Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture.

On Thursday, Obama announced he was banning interrogation techniques that critics describe as torture.

“Messages have real, concrete effects. Just by issuing one, he can reestablish relations that we have with a large part of the world,” Killmer said.

Though he cast his new ethics rules as the strictest ever, Obama has left wiggle room for lobbyists he feels he can’t do without. On Wednesday, he announced a new policy that bars for two years lobbyists who join the government from working on issues they previously were involved with.

But there are exceptions: The president’s choice for a top Pentagon job, William J. Lynn III, was until last year a registered lobbyist for the defense contractor Raytheon Co.

The biggest tests for Obama are not what he can accomplish by executive fiat. He has staked his presidency on building the political consensus needed for dramatic swings in policy.

On healthcare, Obama has a narrow window to create a system that would reduce costs while extending coverage to more Americans -- the political calendar requires him to act this year. If he lets the debate bleed into 2010, the effort could be entangled in the midterm congressional elections, a scenario he wants to avoid.

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont) said the clock is a worry. Interest groups who favor the status quo will find it “easier to frustrate our efforts in an election year,” said Stark, a proponent of overhauling healthcare. “So there’s a real urgency to get this done before Halloween, by the very latest.”

Aides said Obama is preparing a full-throated push on healthcare, with former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle heading the effort. Daschle, whom Obama has nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services, has already begun meeting with key lawmakers and interest groups close to the debate.

The president is also girding to pass major new energy and environmental policies this year. Congressional leaders expect Obama to push an energy bill in the spring, which probably will include more spending on alternative energy development, upgrades to the nation’s electric grid and a national mandate for use of renewable energy resources.

On a separate track, Obama is pressing for legislation aimed at controlling global warming. He wants a so-called cap-and-trade system that would regulate carbon dioxide emissions and give permits, or allowances, to individual polluters such as power plants.

Reviving the economy is a central preoccupation. In a change to White House protocol, Obama has asked to receive daily briefings on the state of the economy along with the daily briefings on national security. The move suggests he believes the economy to be an issue on par with the nation’s defense.

By next month, he hopes to have taken his first step toward lifting the nation out of recession. He has set a goal of mid-February for passage of his $825-billion stimulus plan.

The political conditions for Obama are optimum. People like him and want him to be bold. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted Jan. 13-16, those surveyed were asked whether Obama’s mandate was to achieve major new social and economic programs or only small policy changes. A sizable majority, 71%, wants him to take on major programs; only 22% prefer small policy changes.

But at some point, Obama will need to show concrete progress.

“If he doesn’t succeed within a year of making real progress or getting legislation that will set us visibly on the road toward an increase in clean energy and pointing to stability in the financial sector, there will be disillusion,” said Robert Himmelberg, a professor of history at Fordham University.

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peter.nicholas@latimes.com

cparsons@tribune.com

Noam N. Levey, Jim Tankersley and Julian E. Barnes of the Washington bureau contributed to this report.