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Acting like the president two months early?



http://news.yahoo.com Mon Nov 24, 3:00 pm ET

As Barack Obama said at his first press conference after winning the election, there can only be one president at a time. But, with two months to go before he's sworn in, Barack Obama sure has done a lot of "presidenting," to use the "Saturday Night Live" vernacular, in the past few days.

Sure, his presidential flexing has been in terms of the economy and not Iran, what his original comment referred to, but still. It's exciting to watch the puzzle pieces fall into place, with new information coming daily.

It started on Friday when NBC reported that Obama's Treasury secretary nominee would be NY Fed President Tim Geithner -- a report that sent stocks skyrocketing, with the Dow closing almost 500 points up on the day.

Speculation began mounting shortly thereafter that Geithner's name had been leaked on purpose in an effort to boost the volatile stock market.

Monday's full announcement of Obama's economic team came next, with Obama confirming that economic heavyweights Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers would play central roles in his administration as Treasury secretary and director of the National Economic Council, respectively.

Some say it was an economic one-two punch designed to showcase the muscle that comes with being the president-elect.

"It's a move his advisers hope will calm the markets and send a signal that he's on top of the financial crisis," said ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

Look no further than portions of Obama's economic press conference this morning to extrapolate why these announcements are happening at a quick-fire pace:

"If we do not act swiftly and boldly, most experts now believe that we could lose millions of jobs next year."

"With our economy in distress, we cannot hesitate or delay."

The New York Times summed it up, saying, "the president-elect sought to convey an impression of continuity and coordination, so that his administration can 'hit the ground running.'"

Monday's economic team announcement isn't the end of it, either. The president-elect said he will discuss in detail tomorrow what "cuts and sacrifices" will have to be made to the federal budget.

Meanwhile, the current president is also trying to deal with the financial crisis, announcing this morning that after meeting with current Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, they have decided to give financial safeguard to the ailing bank behemoth Citigroup.

President Bush also said that he and Paulson are working closely with the president-elect as they negotiate the deal.

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