Since the campaign, every political blog on the Good Lord’s Internet downshifted from analysis to armchair presidenting. In his first radio address, Barack Obama solicited the input of the American people on his transition process and, holy bejeezus, did we in the blogosphere oblige.  On his appointments, on the bailout, on the Big Three, on Mumbai, on Blagojevich, if the President-elect was running short on batshit ideas, he has been one google away from filling his take since Election Day.

Should our gonzo crew be any different?  This week we have a dual-perspective weigh-in from our writing staff answering the question everyone on the Internet is also answering:

What should be Barack Obama’s first act as president?

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Hala V. Furst

I’ve been thinking about bridges lately. Living in the Ocean State means most people cross a bridge or seven in order to just get from work to home (unless you live on the island- then you just never leave). There is a giant, Mothman Prophecies-esque bridge that I cross just to get from school to virtually any other part of the state. And the massive Newport and Jamestown bridges make my palms sweat every time I even think about them.

I left Minnesota literally two weeks before the I-35 bridge collapse. When I was living on the U of M campus I drove across that span easily once a day, if not more. While thankfully no one I know was caught in that rubble, it was a startling reminder that the things we rely on can crumble and fail, if not properly cared for. The American people are stuck right now on a bridge to their uncertain future. We trudge across it, listening for the creak and snap of an eminent collapse. Like Lot’s wife we are afraid to move forward, but know the disaster of looking back. What lies ahead is fog and smoke, and we are unsure of the shape we will be in when we arrive on the far side.

So as his first act as President, I think Obama should fix the bridges. We may not know where we are headed, but we should at least arrive there in one piece. And it should be more than the bridges- he should follow through on his radio address last week, and push to create the largest civic works initiative since the WPA. There is a student movement afoot to pass the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act, a bill initiating an administration to rebuild the hurricane hot zones in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. Obama should work with congress to expand the idea to the entirety of the United States. The time as come for us to focus on the home and hearth, and mend what is broken in our schools, our roads, our hospitals, and the rest of our infrastructure. Hell, lets build a few monuments while we’re at it. Nothing raises morale like a really good monument.

For we are lacking morale in equal measure to jobs. For all the kvetching I do about American’s wasting time in front of the TV, consuming drivel, we really do love to work. We like to feel industrious and useful, like children peeling carrots for dinner. With the jobless rate going through the roof at about the same rate as the cost of living, we need to create jobs. There is work to be done, and if we’re going to bail out the banks, bail out Detroit, we could at least bail out the American workforce. Taxpayers might actually get a return on that investment. The nation is suffering a crisis of confidence, and rightly so. Our leaders, the free market, even the very ground beneath our feet is failing us. By shoring up the bridges, the roads, and the rest of it, Obama might at least be able to put us on solid footing once again. What happens next is anyone’s guess.

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Rob Spectre

The natural answer is “fix the economy.” After all, it’s why we ignored his skin color, middle name and irritating habit of forming complete sentences and elected him President of the United States.  Creating 2.5 million jobs, unfreezing the credit markets and stabilizing investment within his first 100 days would be a fantastic start that would leave plenty of time in his first year to pull all the troops out of Iraq, install real democracy in Afghanistan, find Osama bin Laden, rein in Pakistan’s emerging terrorist elements, curb Russia’s resurgence, blunt China’s economic progress, cure AIDS in Africa, resolve the Palestinian question, and figure why I can’t walk down Market Street in San Francisco one fucking time without smelling weed.

If wishing made it so.  If the transition is meant to fulfill in appearance if not in actuality the campaign’s promise of change, Obama’s first hundred days in office should build momentum.  Inertia from a campaign has a spectacular way of fading in winter, especially in one as cold as this.  The forward motion of the election season translates poorly to governance; Obama won the Super Bowl for the chance to play in the World Series.  The game is radically different and victory comes in smaller pieces.  And importantly, the sweep comes to those who can capture momentum early.

President Obama would do well to find one quick but substantial win and get it done, even if it is orthogonal to the pressing economic and foreign policy concerns that will command the attention of the first term.  The win should be bipartisan, leverage the brain trust he has assembled and make good on a major plank of his campaign platform.  An achievement that would satisfy such requirements is health care portability.

Instead of shooting for an ambitious “Patient’s Bill of Rights” type of program in his first year, he could address one substantial concern in the healthcare field that is low hanging fruit. Legislation providing the public with the ability to keep one’s health insurance from job to job is a perfect, limited scope that meshes well with a Congressional honeymoon and fresh beginning.  A bill making it easy for businesses of all sizes to plug-and-play benefits programs would be a hit on both sides of the aisle and the issue is low temperature enough to allow for plenty of room to compromise and little ideological flaming.  It’s the perfect mix of relevance and isolation from the culture wars.

It is also timely – UnitedHealth just announced an absurd new production that is essentially insurance for your health insurance.  Called UnitedHealth Continuity, policyholders pay an additional 20% of their premium for the privilege of being able to return to the policy if the holder finds him or herself unable to find healthcare elsewhere some time down the road.  The mere idea is crazy – that it became a product is batshit fucking loco.

Through the process of pulling out that win in the first 100 days, the Obama administration would have a broad coalition with which to govern, the adoration of the majority, the respect of the minority, and – most importantly – the momentum for a strong first term.

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What’s your advice for the incoming administration?  What should Barack fix first?

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