Has Obama Built a Strong Foundation?

President Obama's first stretch in office, focusing on a second key dimension: laying a foundation. Has he laid a solid foundation for accomplishing his A-item priorities during the remainder of his first year in office?

Early wins - the first dimension - help new leaders get off to a good start, but they are not sufficient for continued success. Like all newly-appointed executives, President Obama should also have begun to lay a foundation for the deeper changes he plans to make. The process is not unlike the launching of a multi-stage rocket into orbit; securing early wins (or avoiding early losses) lifts a new leader off the ground, and efforts at foundation-building provide the thrust necessary to achieve orbit and avoid falling back to earth.

In evaluating President Obama's effectiveness on this dimension, the first question concerns whether he has appointed a strong team of officials to develop his policies and press for their implementation. My assessment is a qualified "yes." He got off to a record-setting start before the inauguration with appointment of key officials that virtually everyone acknowledged were highly qualified, including the critical hold-over of Robert Gates at Defense. Then the President hit some turbulence when several senior appointees withdrew due to tax troubles. There also was some early criticism of the performance of Timothy Geithner, and the glacial pace at which sub-cabinet appointments at Treasury were made; ironically this was partially the result of the very strict vetting process the President put in place. (The recent Swine flu outbreak has also highlighted similar staffing weaknesses at the Department of Health and Human Services).

At this point, however, Geithner appears to have recovered from his early stumbles. The appointment of Gates is looking inspired as he uses his credibility to push through a reform agenda at Defense. Hilary Clinton is proving to be both a very solid choice on the substance and a big political asset in laying the foundation for the President's international agenda. No other senior officials have yet found themselves in really hot water. While negative surprises are of course possible, at this point everything seems on track with the team.

Less good has been the President's approach to the other key element of foundation building: creating supportive alliances to push forward his legislative agenda in this session of Congress. The stimulus package is a case in point. President Obama won passage of the stimulus bill and advanced his budget largely on the strength of Democratic control of the Congress. But by ceding control of the drafting of the stimulus bill to Democratic law makers and by pushing the resulting bill through the Senate with the minimum possible support for Republicans, he immediately positioned himself as a partisan-in-sheeps-clothing. The bloat associated with the bill also opened him up for attack from fiscal conservatives who rightly paint it as a sign that Democrats have not forsaken their high-spending ways.

Given the ambition of his policy agenda, especially in areas such as health-care and energy, Obama cannot hope to move things forward without building a stronger coalition of the center. This will mean a combination of more inclusive and politically moderate policy development combined with continued outreach and bridge-building.

Given this, my assessment is a solid "B+" for laying a foundation for achieving key goals by the end of his first year.