Obama prepares for his first 100 days

WHEN he takes office, the new President of the United States will face an unenviable in-tray: the biggest economic crisis since the 1929 Wall Street Crash and unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain have been working with their transition teams, led by John Podesta for the Democrats and William Timmons for the Republicans, to make the move to the White House as smooth as possible. With the Democrat leading in the polls, how would President Obama face the challenge of the world's top job?

By the time the removal vans have taken the last crate of cowboy boots off to Crawford, Texas, and Obama's basketball hoop has been fixed on the wall of a newly built court close to the Oval Office, the new president will have already started work.

It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who set the 100 days yardstick for his successors, with his dynamic attempts to turn the depressed US economy around. Like FDR, Obama knows that he needs to use his first days in office to reassure the public and the markets.

"The first 100 days are crucial, they set the tone for the administration," said Professor Martha Joynt Kumar, director of the White House Transition Project which provides assistance to the teams of both candidates. "It's about establishing a reputation early on as a dynamic and decisive leader."

As a dedicated student of presidential history Obama will have learned from his predecessors' mistakes. He is unlikely to repeat the muddle of the Carter transition, or Bill Clinton's error in getting bogged down in the issue of gays in the military which made the new president seem like the hostage of Democrat interest groups.

Though he faces massive challenges, Obama has a strong hand to play. Whereas his rival would have to work with a Congress and Senate held by political opponents, Obama is devising strategy even now with Democrat leaders in both houses. He will need their support to tackle America's flatlining economy, and the disastrous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the 77 days between election and inauguration, Obama is expected to name a heavyweight as Secretary to the Treasury (billionaire maverick and Obama supporter Warren Buffett has been mentioned) and Obama will also press ahead with his plans to bring America's troops home at the earliest opportunity.

Alternative energy sources, tax reform and a health care plan are also priorities, but some experts believe that Obama's election promises may have to wait until the economy is under control.

"If the next president can stabilise the economy and financial system they will be given a lot of leeway. If they can't do that then the public will be very unhappy with everything," said Mark Zandy chief economist of Moody's.com and an occasional McCain adviser.

Ronald Reagan is acclaimed as the president who got off to the most successful start, by focusing on two or three key policies. Presidents Clinton and Carter both tried to do too much and undermined their core message.

"The media keeps score at the end of the first 100 days," said former Carter official Harrison Wellford, who has advised Democrats on the transition since 1976. "One of the biggest challenges is hubris. Having survived that trial of getting elected you think you can survive anything and overestimate how much you can achieve."

One of Obama's key challenges will be choosing his team. Kumar said: "The cabinet nominees will be named before Christmas. Anything that deals with national security and the financial crisis will be a priority."

And what of the day-to-day atmosphere of the Obama White House?

"It would be a lot more fun to work in than a McCain White House. He's cool, intellectual and open to new ideas," said Professor Paul Light, of New York University, who specialises in government operations.

Each president takes his own style to the White House. Discussions in the Clinton era often rolled on into the early hours, with debates punctuated by deliveries of fast food, and the Bush White House has been more like an old-fashioned business, with shirts and ties, formal lines of communication and a chief executive making final decisions,

Speculation is rife in Washington that Colin Powell, George Bush's former Secretary of State, is about to endorse Obama, possibly as early as today. His experience would be welcomed by the newly elected president as he stamps his authority on the corridors of power.

Leon Panetta, former Congressman and White House chief of staff under Clinton, said: "Obama, because of his nature, will be much more interested (than McCain] in getting as many views as possible with regard to the issues he's looking at."

But there is more to the White House than just the administrative centre of the US government. It is also a home.

Jackie Kennedy busied herself replacing the White House crockery. Judging by the style of the Obamas' Chicago home, contemporary understated chic may soon replace Laura Bush's chintz. But there will be other changes too. The soundtrack to Obama's White House will include everything from Jay-Z and Ludacriss to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and for the first time since the Carter Presidency the White House will also be home to young children. There may soon be Barbies, or even Bratz dolls on the carpets.

More soberingly, the President and his team aren't the only ones focused on the first 100 days. The terror attacks on London and Glasgow occurred just after Gordon Brown took office and the 1993 World Trade Center bomb attack occurred early into the Clinton Presidency. If the unthinkable happens, the new president's mettle might be tested earlier than anyone wishes.

"If you have a crisis during the first 100 days the way in which the president and his team respond sets the tone for the rest of the first term if not the rest of the presidency," said Wellford.

Whether Obama, who likes to weigh up all the options before taking a decision, has it in him to respond immediately to an unexpected and catastrophic event is unclear. Along with everything else it is an eventuality his advisers will be preparing him for.