Change that will cost a fortune
Business Times - 03 Mar 2009 Obama will face huge political and legislative obstacles in garnering support for his three dramatic policy proposals By LEON HADAR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT A FEW days after the historic 2008 presidential election and in the midst of the worst economic downturn in American history since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Rahm Emanuel was selected by then President-elect Barack Obama as his chief of staff. He explained what would turn out to be the guiding principle of the new Democratic administration: 'You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.' 'What I mean by that is that it's an opportunity to do things you could not do before,' he said. Mr Emanuel's advice may have sounded a bit Machiavellian. But Mr Obama's top White House aide demonstrated that he was a brilliant student of the history of the American presidency. Indeed, two of the great US presidents in the 20th century - Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) and ...