Obama is Blazing a New Trail With His Bold Moves on the Economy

Not that Obama's decision-making process is always easy. White House aides say his toughest decision so far was to release detailed memos on harsh U.S. interrogation methods for suspected terrorists, such as waterboarding, that some have labeled torture. "He struggled with it," says a senior aide who participated in the deliberations. "There were a lot of competing ideas"—and strong disagreements among his aides. Obama was trying to balance national security with the goal of showing the world that the United States has "nothing to hide" in explaining its antiterrorism policies, and to underscore that torture violates American values. In the end, Obama concluded that the harsh methods had not been more effective than other techniques. "Whether they [the harsh methods] work is unknowable," says a senior aide, adding that it was clear that al Qaeda was using the U.S. techniques as a "recruitment poster" to mobilize terrorists around the world. Besides, the aide says, most of the details were widely known before the memos were released. Obama is now allowing his Justice Department to consider whether to prosecute officials of the Bush administration who designed and authorized the harsh interrogation techniques.

But fixing the economy remains Job 1, and administration officials say that the severity of the crisis, while bad for the country, has actually propelled Obama's overall agenda. "Big change was called for, and change was the message of the campaign," the senior official says. "What impresses me is that he wants to play big."

In addition, White House officials say, the healthcare issue has increased in importance, moving from a moral issue to a moral and practical one. This represents a contrast from the Clinton administration, when overhauling the healthcare system failed under the weight of practical concerns such as whether the version pushed by Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1993 and 1994 would have the government intrude too much into the medical system. There is a deep belief among many experts that the healthcare costs are breaking the national budget and the budgets of millions of businesses, families, and individuals. Reform would be a "moral good since it's an embarrassment to have so many uninsured," the senior White House official says, "but there's now a fiscal imperative to fix it. There's a whole new momentum behind reform."

Another advantage for Obama is that the Democratic Party finally has a deep bench for filling the administration with Washington veterans. Obama has access to a pool of aides from the eight-year regime of Bill Clinton, whose policies were popular and whose presidency was widely considered a success. Even these veteran Clinton aides made mistakes at first, such as ineptly vetting some Obama cabinet members whose names had to be withdrawn amid various controversies, but the stumbles were quickly overcome.

One of Obama's biggest concerns is falling out of touch with everyday America, aides say, as he navigates a hectic schedule and deals with the limits imposed by the Secret Service on how he interacts with citizens. But he still talks to close friends via his BlackBerry, and he looks forward to reading letters from everyday citizens given to him each morning by his staff. He reads the correspondence, tucked into a purple folder, when he gets a break in the Oval Office but most frequently goes over it as a stay-in-touch ritual each night in the residence. When letters resonate with him, "he sends them around to all of us," says a member of his inner circle. He often pens a reply.

Obama also tries to maintain normalcy in a number of ways, working out at 7 a.m. in the third-floor gym of the residence, having breakfast with his wife, Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and getting home in time for a family dinner. He tries to leave Washington once a week to take soundings "outside the beltway."