WASHINGTON — Barack Obama, transitioning from presidential campaign to the White House in the fall of 2008, was confronted with what could be described as a steaming pile of bad economic news. The stock market was collapsing, credit markets were frozen and hundreds of thousands of jobs were being lost every month.
“Well,” the soon-to-be president told his incoming economic advisers. “It’s too late to ask for a recount.”
The meeting foreshadowed what would be a multi-year crash between lofty goals of a hope-filled campaign and sharp realities — economic, political and otherwise. For David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist since his run for Senate in 2004, the moment was perhaps more meaningful than it was for others.
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All the heavy decision-making and political trading had its toll on Obama during those early days. At one point, he tells Axelrod that he could envision leaving the White House after one term, provided he got enough done — a statement that Axelrod describes as more venting frustration than disillusionment.
Obama, of course, ran for re-election after getting his stimulus passed, bailing out Detroit, and seeing health care reform enacted. And along the way, he was forced to compromise more on promises, including those to his own team.
“Despite his yeoman service, and Obama’s deep respect, Larry [Summers] was twice passed over for the Fed chairmanship he had been promised when he agreed to serve in the White House,” writes Axelrod. “The first time, in the spring of 2009, Obama yielded to Geithner’s recommendation that he reappoint Bernanke in order to reassure the jittery markets. Four years later, when Bernanke retired, the president passed over Summers again, concerned that opposition from the Left, including Senator [Elizabeth] Warren, would make the nomination too heavy a lift, jeopardizing other priorities.”
