Spend time with President-elect Barack Obama, and you won’t question the confidence he will carry into the Oval Office eight days from now. He doesn’t.


Interview: Obama on the Economy
John Harwood of The New York Times and CNBC sits down with President-elect Barack Obama.

At 47, Mr. Obama is inheriting an economy that has shed one million jobs just in the two months since his election. He has held public office barely longer than his eldest daughter, 10-year-old Malia, has been alive.

Yet he brims with self-assurance about himself, his program and his ability to rally a fearful American public. For evidence that his internal buoyancy resonates with the American public, consider that 82 percent of people polled by CNN last month credited Mr. Obama with the ability to inspire confidence.

The desk behind Mr. Obama at transition headquarters holds bound volumes of the words of one president: John F. Kennedy. He doesn’t shrink from comparison with Kennedy, another charismatic 40-something president with an attractive young family and a Harvard pedigree.

“You’ve got to watch those Harvard guys, they’ll get you every time,” Mr. Obama said with a chuckle during a recent interview. He vowed to avoid the stumbles of Kennedy’s “Best and the Brightest” by seeking a broad range of advice.

And he shrugged off concerns about overconfidence by invoking his skills: “What I do have confidence about is that I’m a good listener, I’m good at synthesizing advice from a range of different perspectives, and that we will make the best possible decisions from the perspective of what’s good for ordinary Americans.”

Embracing Roosevelt

The leadership challenge he faces most often draw comparisons with Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. He embraces that, too.

“If you look at F.D.R.’s first speech, the line that’s remembered is ‘The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,’ ” Mr. Obama said. “But actually the bulk of the speech centered around the need to act and act now.

“This is a bit of advice that I received from one of the former presidents,” he continued. “He said, ‘Part of the reason, Barack, that you’re doing well right now is because you don’t talk down to the American people, you play it straight and just explain what it is that’s taking place.’ read more