President Obama and a few niggling doubts

I think it is fair to say that most of Europe has welcomed the arrival of President Barack Obama as a man of vision, of refreshing ideas, an articulate man, too, who is a splendid orator able to get his convictions and ideals across convincingly.

It is recognised that the President has taken office at one of the toughest times in recent history and there is much goodwill flying in his direction and hopes that his Presidency will be a landmark one for all the right reasons.



There is no doubt that the President's aims are not just ambitious but daring. There are many in his own party now more than a little nervous about the amount of money he intends to spend to force America out of recession. So no one can doubt his political courage.

But, of course, it takes more than a crusading spirit and a set of convictions to be a successful President as Jimmy Carter, for one, found to his cost. You need to have an organisation in place which effects your decisions smoothly and effectively.

And that - at the moment - seems to be Obama's problem.

In the first few weeks of his Presidency he lost one key appointee after another, mainly due to some personal scandal, hitherto undetected. OK there may be a few glitches when you start the job, though hopefully not as many as Mr Obama has faced, but at some point your machinery has to start running smoothly.

Now, however, it has been revealed that the US Treasury Department is more or less being run single-handed, by the Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, and there are still jobs to be filled for SEVENTEEN deputy officials to help carry the workload. The G20 summit starts in London in three weeks time and, according to 'The Times' British officials are privately very worried that the Americans are not up to speed on key elements of the talks and may not be before the summit begins. That would be pretty disastrous as the Americans are, naturally, one of the most important players

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People are declining posts in the US Treasury for 'personal reasons' and there is a growing fear that some of this may be due to a concern, even among Democrats, about the thrust of the President's fiscal policy, and that when, as they fear, it goes wrong they will be left carrying the can.

Whatever the cause, Mr Obama needs to dedicate himself, for a few weeks at least, to ensuring that his staff are in place and that the visionary approach he has set out for the future of America is not undermined by a lack of administrative resources to implement it.