Editorial

Even the most cynical and jaded spectator of the international scene will agree that during the past month and a half a mind-boggling political event has been taking place in the US. The experience is an ongoing one.

The world has been watching President-elect Barack Obama to see what sort of team he will gather around him so that, as he put it, by the time of his inauguration in January he "hits the ground running". It has also been listening. The more critical have been struck by differences that have emerged between Senator Obama running for office and Senator Obama as President-in-waiting.

No word was used more often during that campaign than "change". Change was coming to America. Change has arrived. And when he appointed his fellow Illinois Democrat, Emanuel Rahm, as his Chief of Staff, within two days of winning the Presidential election, people nodded sagely but wondered what had happened to the anti-Washington sneers that came from both contestants. And, as to change, was Mr Rahm not the Clintons' political director?

That the new Chief of Staff is an effective person, however, was not in question. He was to be regarded, pundits said, as the mover behind the Administration, one who would bring order and energy into an Administration.

Mr Obama then proceeded to score heavily with his retention of Robert Gates as his Defence Secretary and Tim Geither as his Secretary of the Treasury. The former, who replaced Donald Rumsfeld, may have changed the story of the war in Iraq had he been appointed instead of Mr Rumsfeld in the first place.

So, so far so good. Then expectedly but unexpectedly, Mr Obama selected Hilary Clinton for the most powerful office of the state after that of the President himself. And, as if to hammer home how far he had travelled from his original stance on the Iraqi war, he nominated General James Jones as his National Security Adviser.

With a couple of wars on his hands, financial turmoil all around and the fear of a terrorist attack, Mr Obama could scarcely have picked up a more relevant team, nor, one must add, one more Washingtonian. Reality soon informs inexperience. Now the world must wait to see how the new President will conduct himself at home and abroad.

At home he has pledged to create 2.5 million jobs by the start of 2011. President Ronald Reagan had generated more than three million jobs in his first two years in office. He has made it clear that "To ensure prosperity here at home and peace abroad, we all share the belief that we have to maintain the strongest military on the planet". His Administration was "absolutely committed to eliminating the threat of terrorism". Not much change there!

He will speak to Iraq and Afghanistan from a position of strength and he will not be the push-over he came across as being during the election campaign when it comes to dealing with Iran. That still leaves the Israeli-Palestinian question open. Whether Mrs Clinton can manage the answer remains to be seen; as does the method Mr Obama will employ. What is certain is that people like Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and al-Qaeda will test him some time soon.