President Obama declared on tax-filing day that he aims to ease the dread of deadline day with “a simpler tax code that rewards work and the pursuit of the American dream.”

“For too long, we’ve seen taxes used as a wedge to scare people into supporting policies that increased the burden on working people instead of helping them live their dreams,” Obama said. “That has to change, and that’s the work that we’ve begun.”

His words were hardly met with universal applause. Across the country, protesters met at statehouses and town squares to oppose Obama’s federal spending since he took office. Organizers said they wanted to channel the spirit of the Boston Tea Party’s rebellion.

“The system is severely broken, and we the people let it get that way,” said Des Moines businessman Doug Burnett. “What can we do? My answer is revolution.”

Outside the White House, protesters threw an apparent box of tea bags over the fence. U.S. Secret Service officers cleared Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park near the compound and sent in a robot to inspect the suspicious package while the White House went on lockdown.

The Secret Service later said the package was not dangerous.

Obama also met with several working families to underscore his efforts to make the tax code more fair and less complex.

Obama noted April 15 “isn’t exactly everyone’s favorite date on the calendar.” But he said the day is a reminder to leaders in Washington that they have a responsibility to the people who elected them.

The president noted that he’s asked his economic advisers to report back by year’s end on possible tax changes.

“We need to simplify a monstrous tax code that is far too complicated for most Americans to understand but just complicated enough for the insiders who know how to game the system,” Obama said.

He added: “It will take time to undo the damage of years of carve-outs and loopholes. But I want every American to know that we will rewrite the tax code so that it puts your interests over any special interest. And we will make it quicker, easier, and less expensive for you to file a return, so that April 15 is not a date that is approached with dread each year.”

WASHINGTON – Aiming to assert control over the nation’s economic debate, President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned Americans eager for good news that “by no means are we out of the woods” and argued his broad domestic agenda is the path to recovery.

In a speech at Georgetown University, Obama aimed to juggle his recent glass-half-full takes on the economy with a determination to not be stamped as naive in the face lingering problems. He summarized actions his administration has taken to steady the limping economy and coupled that with a fresh overview of his domestic goals.

The speech, which key aides had signaled in advance would not contain any major announcements, came as Obama nears his symbolic 100-day mark in office, important because that has become a traditional marker by which to judge new administrations.

“There is no doubt that times are still tough,” Obama said. “But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope. And beyond that, way off in the distance, we can see a vision of an America’s future that is far different than our troubled economic past.”

Obama’s message came on a day of conflicting economic indicators and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s suggestion that the recession may at last be bottoming out.

It would have been difficult to make that case based on a report the government released earlier Tuesday showing that retail sales plummeted by 1.1 percent in March, a performance much poorer than experts had anticipated. At the same time, wholesale prices dropped sharply, a strong indication that inflation appears to pose little threat to the economy.

In a speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Bernanke talked of flickering signs of improvement, citing recent data on home and auto sales, home building and consumer spending.

But the government’s broader message — that a full turnaround might be a long time coming — may not be welcome news for a weary U.S. public.

Obama, in fact, said in his speech that a complete recovery depends on building a new foundation for the U.S. economy and making changes in the political landscape. And he said anew that rules governing the financial system must be made compatible with Digital Age technology and innovation, telling Congress that “I expect a bill to arrive on my desk for signature before the year is out.”

He also said the economy must be transformed from one less dependent on a risk-obsessed financial sector and more on clean energy, good education and health care costs brought under control.

“We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,” he said, invoking a Biblical reference to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. “We must build our house upon a rock. We must lay a new foundation for growth and prosperity a foundation that will move us from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest, where we consume less at home and send more exports abroad.”

Obama also said the problem is exacerbated by politicians with an outsized interest in scoring points and an impatient media.

“When a crisis hits,” he said, “there is all too often a lurch from shock to trance, with everyone responding to the tempest of the moment until the furor has died down and the media coverage has moved on to something else, instead of confronting the major challenges that will shape our future in a sustained and focused way.”

“This can’t be one of those times,” Obama said.

Obama put his fledgling presidency on the line when he advocated sweeping new government intervention and spending to right the troubled economic conditions. Shortly after taking office he signed a $787 billion package intended to boost the economy and his administration also has unveiled a slew of other programs aimed to right the troubled home, banking and auto sectors.

“Taken together, these actions are starting to generate signs of economic progress,” he said, citing canceled government-sector layoffs, new clean-energy industry hires, a spate of refinancings, and signs of increased credit flows.

But, the president said, “2009 will continue to be a difficult year.” He predicted more job losses, foreclosures, and gyrating stock markets.

The president devoted a significant portion of his speech to defending actions he has taken in the face of criticism he has heard mainly from Republicans — but also from some of the more conservative members of own Democratic Party — that he has “been spending with reckless abandon, pushing a liberal social agenda while mortgaging our children’s future.”

Not so, Obama said.

“The last thing a government should do in the middle of a recession is to cut back on spending,” the president said.

As for the long-term, increasingly dire federal budget deficit picture, he said that investments in new industries and economic foundations is crucial to future success and even to reducing the deficit. “Chronically slow growth will not help our long-term budget situation,” he said.

The president also defended the massive and unpopular government programs enacted under the Bush administration and expanded under Obama to bail out banks and other financial institutions. He acknowledged that sending money directly to taxpayers might be more palatable — but said it wouldn’t be as effective.

“The truth is that a dollar of capital in a bank can actually result in eight or ten dollars of loans to families and businesses, a multiplier effect that can ultimately lead to a faster pace of economic growth,” Obama said.

In this March 24, 2009 file photo, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, left, accompanied by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Geithner, Bernanke and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair are scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama Friday morning.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday the economy is beginning to show “glimmers of hope” despite remaining under stress and signaled more steps are coming to brighten the business climate.

Obama commented to reporters after meeting at the White House with members of his economic team, including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, economic adviser Larry Summers and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

“What we’re starting to see is glimmers of hope across the economy,” the president said, just before noting that the economy is “still under severe stress.”

“Whatever we do ultimately has to translate into economic growth and job,” Obama said.

He said there has been a significant uptick in the number of homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages, which will put money back into their pockets. He said a 20 percent increase last month in the Small Business Administration’s largest program means that small companies, often prized as the backbone of the economy, “are starting to get money.”

But Obama also noted the high rate of national joblessness — which climbed to 8.5 percent of the civilian labor force in March — and acknowledged that “we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

“We’re starting to see progress,” he declared, “and if we stick with it, if we don’t flinch in the face of some difficulties, then I feel absolutely convinced that we are going to get this economy back on track.”

Obama said he and his advisers discussed the stability of the financial system, the housing market and a program to help banks clear their books of bad assets that have made normal lending difficult if not impossible.

Also attending Friday’s meeting were Christina Romer, who heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers; Sheila Bair, chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Schapiro and Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan.

President Barack Obama

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s optimistic campaign rhetoric has crashed headlong into the stark reality of governing.

In office two months, he has backpedaled on an array of issues, gingerly shifting positions as circumstances dictate while ducking for political cover to avoid undercutting his credibility and authority. That’s happened on the Iraq troop withdrawal timeline, on lobbyists in his administration and on money for lawmakers’ pet projects.

It’s the same delicate dance each of his predecessors faced in moving from candidate to president, only to find he couldn’t stick exactly by his word. Each was hamstrung by his responsibility to the entire nation and to individual constituencies, changes in the foreign and domestic landscapes, and the trappings of the federal government and Washington itself.

“Candidates make promises and presidents break promises, and that’s a very predictable pattern,” said Julian Zelizer, a Princeton University historian.

Once in the White House, presidents quickly learn they are only one part of the political system, not in charge of it. They discover the trade-offs they must make and the parties they must please to get things done. Inevitably, they find out that it’s impossible to follow through completely on their campaign proposals.

Like those before him, “Obama’s shifting to the political realities,” said Zelizer. That’s not a bad thing, he said. “We want presidents to adjust to the realities of governing, to the realities of the environment.”

For now at least, Obama’s deviations have served only to invite occasional cries of hypocrisy from some Republicans and infrequent grumbles of disappointment from some Democrats. He has popularity on his side, and it seems people mostly are chalking up his moves to much needed flexibility at a difficult time.

But the shifts could take a toll over time if they become a persistent pattern and the public grows weary. His overall job-performance marks could suffer and jeopardize his likely re-election campaign in 2012. People could perceive him as a say-one-thing-do-another politician and the Democratic-controlled Congress could see him as a weak chief executive.

Obama’s moves and maneuvering for political cover run the gamut.

He spent most of the campaign promising to bring combat troops home from Iraq 16 months after taking office, though he left himself wiggle room.

After directing his commanders to map out a responsible pullout, President Obama adjusted that timeline to 19 months and said 50,000 troops, about one-third of the current force, would remain.

While campaigning, Obama frequently swiped at lobbyists, saying, “When I am president, they won’t find a job in my White House.”

Then he took office and had to fill thousands of positions. He did allow former lobbyists to join his administration. But he imposed ethics rules barring them from dealing with matters related to their lobbying work or joining agencies that they had lobbied in the previous two years. In several cases, he has made outright exceptions.

Obama the candidate pledged to curb spending directed at lawmakers’ pet projects; they’re known in Washington as earmarks. Obama the president signed an “imperfect” $410 billion budget measure that included 8,500 earmarks.

He had little choice. The measure, a holdover from last year, was needed to keep government from shutting down. But to blunt the fallout, Obama outlined guidelines to ensure tighter restraints on the spending and made a new promise: future earmarks won’t become law so easily.

As for politics, Obama campaigned as a new-style leader who chastised partisanship and renounced divisiveness in Washington. But as president, Obama’s White House aides wasted little time pouncing on Republicans and mocking conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh as the GOP’s leader.

On fiscal matters, Obama the candidate urged Americans to tighten their belts. Once in office and saddled with recession, though, he signed a $787 billion stimulus measure and outlined a $3.6 trillion budget plan that will plunge the nation deeper into the red. But again he paired the proposal with a new promise, to cut the deficit by more than half by the end of his first term.

“It’s far easier to campaign in a purist kind of way than to govern,” said Thomas Cronin, a presidential scholar at Colorado College. “Reality shapes what presidents do” — and how presidents adjust to it shapes the public’s perception.

Franklin D. Roosevelt ran for office promising to balance the budget. But he reversed course when he took over a country in depression and doled out a spending prescription to revive the economy. He made other shifts as well.

The ailing public didn’t view him as wishy-washy or politically calculating, but rather as a president who was experimenting in hopes of finding policy to fix the problems. His charm and communication savvy allowed him to get away with it.

Historians agree that seems to be the model Obama is trying to emulate. A charismatic orator, he’s trying to govern with a pragmatic posture while projecting a willingness to compromise.

His mantra these days: “We will not let the pursuit of the perfect stand in the way of achievable goals.”

Liz Sidoti covers the White House for The Associated Press and has covered national politics since 2003.

In his first five weeks, in his first budget and in his first address to Congress, President Obama has made clear he's plowing ahead with his ambitious, big-ticket campaign promises.

Like other presidents saddled with a crisis, Barack Obama is embracing the worst economic conditions in a generation as an opportunity to advance an audacious agenda that, if successful, could reshape the country for decades to come.

The flip side: He could fall victim to grandiose plans and too-high expectations if he doesn’t deliver.

It’s clearly a chance he’s willing to take.

“We are a nation that has seen promise amid peril and claimed opportunity from ordeal. Now we must be that nation again,” Obama told the ailing and anxious country last week. “Now is the time to act boldly and wisely.”

In his first five weeks, in his first budget and in his first address to Congress, Obama has made clear he’s plowing ahead with his ambitious, big-ticket campaign promises. At the same time, he’s trying to reverse a recession he inherited, by rescuing the banking, housing and financial sectors.

He wants to free the country from its foreign oil dependence, improve early childhood schooling, curb global warming, withdraw troops from Iraq, overhaul tax laws, fix transportation arteries, rehabilitate the U.S. image abroad and even find a cure for cancer. This week, he’ll hold a health care summit to start a massive overhaul he hopes to complete in 2009.

“I think that we are at an extraordinary moment that is full of peril but full of possibility, and I think that’s the time you want to be president,” Obama told PBS’ “The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer” in an interview Friday. “I think there’s a sense that right now we are having to make some very big decisions that will help determine the direction of this country, and – in ways large and small – the direction of the world for the next generation.

“And I won’t lie to you. I wish that they weren’t all having to be made at once. It would nice to be able to stage them on one another,” Obama added.

Big questions hover over his broad vision. Can Obama win enough support from lawmakers and the public to accomplish what he wants without major changes? If so, will his prescriptions for the country’s ills work?

Politically, he’s betting the rewards will be worth the risks. And there are many, as he tries to do so much so early in his presidency, with the country so deep in disarray.

“The major one is that you don’t know what you’re doing, that you move quickly without really understanding the problems,” said Stephen Wayne, a Georgetown University government professor. But, he added, Obama has compensated by studying the issues and appointing an experienced Cabinet.

Obama could spread himself too thin to make the lasting change he promised as a candidate. His advisers say that at the very least, Obama will get credit for setting the wheels in motion on a range of long-festering problems. But voters demanding immediate results may not see it that way, and others may balk at his broad expansion of government.

Congressional politics also could interfere. Many initiatives must move through the cantankerous House and Senate ahead of 2010 elections. On Capitol Hill, Obama faces the challenges of keeping his increasingly energized left-wing Democrats in line while continuing to reach out to reluctant Republicans.

If the recession doesn’t turn around in the coming years, Obama could stand accused of focusing too much on the long term. He recently acknowledged that his re-election prospects could suffer if the economy fails to rebound. He got no help Friday with news that the economy contracted 6.2 percent in the final three months of 2008, the worst showing in a quarter-century.

Working in his favor are a high job approval rating and loads of political capital. Even before he took office, it was expected Obama intended to spend that capital in a big way.

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said last fall. He argued that the turbulent conditions opened doors for big changes in long-neglected areas.

In that sense, the new president is following an old model.

“Whenever there’s a crisis in American life, whoever is in charge has used it for a backlogged agenda,” said Leo Ribuffo, a history professor at George Washington University. “This is what leaders are supposed to do: take advantage of the situation to do what they think is good for the country.”

That’s not lost on Obama, who told Congress last week: “History reminds us that at every moment of economic upheaval and transformation, this nation has responded with bold action and big ideas.”

Rightly or wrongly, he’s often compared with Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, president during the Depression and a worldwide war who seized on the public’s angst to push his New Deal. He overhauled the banking and financial system, plowed money into public works and created Social Security.

Three decades later, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson took advantage of intense social unrest to move ahead with his Great Society programs. The former Senate majority leader used his Capitol Hill savvy to advance anti-poverty measures and a civil rights agenda that granted blacks their first real entry into the political system. He also launched education and transportation initiatives. Medicare and Medicaid are among his legacies.

In the 1980s, Republican Ronald Reagan led a country faced with sky-high inflation and a growing Soviet threat. He used the public’s anxieties over the Cold War and the economy to win support for an expanded military even as he limited the size of government, instituted across-the-board tax cuts and promoted supply-side economics.

Obama now will have to use the political skills and rhetorical devices that have gotten him this far.

“He laid out this huge agenda. Now, he’s got to persuade people to trust him,” said Robin Lakoff, a linguistics professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

Liz Sidoti covers the White House for The Associated Press and has covered national politics since 2003.

President Obama, followed by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, waves upon their arrival at Buckley Air Force Base in Colorado on Tuesday before going to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to sign the economic stimulus bill.

DENVER — President Obama has signed into law the most sweeping economic package in decades, a rescue plan designed to create millions of jobs and boost consumer spending.

It was a major political victory for Obama, who took office less than a month ago.

Obama said the government has begun the essential work of keeping the American dream alive in our time.

The $787 billion package aims to reverse the nation’s economic free fall. It pumps money into infrastructure projects, health care, renewable energy development and conservation. There’s a $400 tax break for most individual workers and $800 for couples. It dishes out tens of billions of dollars to states.

Obama signed the bill at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The setting was to underscore the new law’s investments in “green” energy-related jobs.

But some Republicans worry about spending levels

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s expansive and expensive plan to jump-start the economy is all but certain to clear its first hurdle when the Democratic-controlled House votes on a $825 billion version that melds new spending and tax cuts.

Republican support, however, is in doubt when voting takes place Wednesday.

With Democrats enjoying a comfortable majority and expected to fall in line behind Obama, they don’t need help from GOP lawmakers to win House passage of his top priority of economic recovery. But Obama wants Republican support to illustrate his promise of a new style of politics that rejects partisan gridlock.

Despite his desire for partisan backing, the House was moving the bill toward a passage vote that was expected to be largely along party lines.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, while declining to say how he thought Wednesday’s vote would turn out, emphasized anew that GOP members are worried about billions in domestic spending that “has nothing to do with creating jobs or preserving jobs.”

“We’re for more than just cutting taxes,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

But he also said GOP lawmakers believe that Democratic spending policies would bury the next generation of Americans under “a mountain of debt.”

Senate committees were working on a separate version of the measure that enjoyed only slightly more support from Republicans. Congressional leaders have promised Obama they would send him the measure, which could be the single largest bill ever to go through Congress, by mid-February.

In the hours ahead of the House vote, Obama was to make his case for swift passage after meeting at the White House with a group of business CEOs to discuss the plan — just as debate on the measure is in full swing up Pennsylvania Avenue.

The president’s first days in office have been dominated by his efforts to drum up bipartisan support for the sweeping plan to jerk the country out of the year-old recession that he inherited from former President George W. Bush. The increasingly troublesome economy — and the federal government’s response to it — is the first major test of Obama’s presidency; how he handles the volatile situation, and the effect of his stimulus package on the economy, could well set the tone for his first year in office, if not his entire term.

He is casting the measure as the first step toward turning around the moribund economy while laying the foundation for long-term objectives, like developing alternative energy sources and rebuilding the country’s highways.

“The statistics every day underscore the urgency of the economic situation. The American people expect action,” Obama said after closed-door meetings with Republicans on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

The House measure includes about $550 billion in spending and roughly $275 billion in tax cuts in hopes of spurring the economy and helping those directly affected. Much of the spending would be for items such as health care, jobless benefits, food stamps and other programs that benefit victims of the downturn.

As debate on the measure began Tuesday, most Democrats trumpeted it as the elixir for what ails their jobless constituents and pressed for passage; Republicans generally griped about “insane” programs that would be funded in the plan and “minuscule” tax relief for small businesses as they urged opposition.

“This could be one of our roughest times our great nation has faced economically,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. But he added, with passage of the bill, “this country is going to be healthy, educated and competitive.”

“Instead of bringing a bill that will stimulate our economy what we see before us is a bill that will simply stimulate big government,” countered Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Texas. “You cannot borrow and spend your way to prosperity.”

The legislation “isn’t an economic stimulus bill but a rampant spending spree,” said Rep. Harold Roger, R-Ky.

Democrats made one small change, voting to delete $20 million intended for renovating the National Mall. Republicans had criticized the expenditure as wasteful.

Across Capitol Hill on Tuesday, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 21-9 to support a $366 billion spending portion of the plan. Four Republicans voted with the majority — Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Christopher Bond of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine — even though they had strong reservations.

Senate Democrats also accepted attaching to the bill a one-year extension of the Alternative Minimum Tax fix aimed at saving primarily higher-income taxpayers about $70 billion. That would increase the Senate bill’s total to about $900 billion.

In both the House and Senate, Obama has reached out to Republicans who want less spending and more tax cuts in the legislation, and he has promised to consider their concerns — and alternative proposals — as it winds its way through Congress.

During his meetings with Republicans, Obama indicated he stands ready to accept changes in the legislation. Republicans who attended the sessions said the president did not agree to any specific changes, but pledged to have his aides consider some that deal with additional tax relief for businesses and provisions that were suggested by individual GOP lawmakers.

Associated Press Special Correspondent David Espo contributed to this story.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama met face-to-face Tuesday with congressional Republicans who have been chafing over parts of a $825 billion plan to pull the country out of recession, and he urged lawmakers to “keep politics to a minimum” and quickly approve the measure.

“The statistics every day underscore the urgency of the economic situation. The American people expect action,” the new Democratic president said in brief remarks between private meetings with House and Senate Republicans at the Capitol. “I don’t expect 100 percent agreement from my Republican colleagues, but I do hope that we can all put politics aside and do the American people’s business right now.”

The president made his first trip to Capitol Hill since his inauguration a week ago, aides said, to listen to concerns from Republicans who have been threatening to oppose the measure over what they call insufficient tax cuts and excessive spending.

The House is to vote on the White House-backed measure Wednesday, and Senate committees began their own deliberations over it on Tuesday. Congressional leaders have pledged to have the bill on Obama’s desk by mid-February. He is hoping for bipartisan support on his top priority of economic recovery even though his fellow Democrats have large majorities in both the House and Senate.

The political maneuvering surrounding the stimulus legislation has become intense, only one week into his tenure.

“There are some legitimate philosophical differences with parts of my plan that the Republicans have and I respect that,” Obama said.

Even so, he called the House meeting “very constructive” and Republican leaders seemed to agree, though none signaled they were ready to sign on to the measure the House is to vote on Wednesday.

“I think we both share a sincere belief that we have to have a plan that works,” House GOP leader John Boehner said. “The president is sincere in wanting to work with us, wanting to here our ideas and find some common ground.”

Added Rep. Eric Cantor, the No. 2 House Republican: “The most encouraging statement I think the president made today was the fact that he had no pride of authorship in this bill. We take that to mean that tomorrow’s vote is only the first step in the process, only the beginning.”

Hours before the meeting, officials said, the two GOP leaders had sought at a closed-door meeting with Republicans to rally opposition to the White House-backed measure. Both men said the legislation contains too much wasteful spending that will not help the economy recover from its worst nosedive since the Great Depression, said the officials, who described the session on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to disclose the discussions.

That request for opposition came one day after Obama extended Republicans an olive branch, appealing to House Democrats to jettison an estimated $200 million ticketed for family planning services for low-income people.

The White House-backed legislation includes roughly $550 billion in spending as well as $275 billion in tax cuts. Much of the spending would be for items such as health care, jobless benefits, food stamps and other programs that benefit victims of the recession.

Obama described the package as “one leg in a multi-legged stool” that includes getting credit flowing again, regulating the financial industry, dealing with troubled bank assets and coordinating with other countries in the economic crisis that now spans the world.

“I am absolutely confident that we can deal with these issues, but the key right now is to make sure that we keep politics to a minimum,” Obama said.

House Republicans have drafted an alternative measure. Except for an extension of unemployment benefits, it consists exclusively of tax cuts.

Earlier Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a televised interview that Obama was having problems with Democrats, whom he said favor spending over tax cuts as a remedy for the economic crisis.

“We think the country needs a stimulus,” McConnell said on NBC’s “Today” show. But he also said that he believes most people do not believe recovery be accomplished through projects like “fixing up the Mall,” a reference to funding to repair the National Mall in Washington. He said Republicans want a bill that devotes 40 percent of its total to tax cuts.

The family planning funding was a particular target of Boehner and other Republicans, and Obama’s intervention was timed for his meetings in the Capitol.

The decision angered some House Democrats — Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. had defended the funding in a weekend television interview — and the White House sought to ease the concerns.

“While he agrees that greater access to family planning is good policy, the president believes that the funding for it does not belong in the economic recovery and reinvestment plan,” said press secretary Robert Gibbs.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 21-9 Tuesday to support a $366 billion spending portion of the plan. Four Republicans voted with the majority — Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, Christopher Bond of Missouri and Susan Collins of Maine —, though they went along only with strong reservations.

President-elect Barack Obama eventually will gain access to the second half of the $700 billion financial bailout fund – politics notwithstanding and more likely sooner than later.

The test is whether he can persuade enough members of his own party to support an extraordinarily unpopular program and avoid an embarrassing veto fight with a Democratic-led Congress at the outset of his presidency. A critical vote could come as early as Thursday.

Obama faces a handful of freshmen Democrats who opposed the bailout as they campaigned in 2008 and more than a dozen Democratic senators who are up for re-election in 2010, three of whom – Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Ron Wyden of Oregon – voted against the first installment of the money.

These Democrats certainly are weighing the political implications of their next steps.

Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who supported the bailout last fall and is up for re-election in two years, described himself as “open-minded but skeptical.” Said Bayh: “I don’t get the sense of impending crisis today that I did at the time of original enactment. I need to be persuaded about need.”

Republicans are mindful of politics, too. They seem less eager to cooperate with an incoming Democratic administration, especially on an enormous government spending program that critics say Congress recklessly rushed through last fall without ensuring proper oversight.

Thus, the onus is primarily on Democrats saddled with a politically uncomfortable decision: They can side with voters generally angry over the sweeping government intervention of Wall Street, or they can line up with a president-elect of their own party looking to open his term with a clear-cut win.

Obama doesn’t have a big margin for error. While most Democrats are likely to support releasing the second $350 billion, the president-elect needs every supporter he can get. A majority vote in the Senate to reject giving him the bailout money would trigger a vote in the House, where the idea is even less popular, and force an Obama veto.

“Sooner or later in all presidencies, senators and House members start getting nervous and may tend to go off the reservation,” said Burdett Loomis, a political science professor at the University of Kansas. “But I don’t think they want to start voting against this president straight away.”

Obama headed to the Capitol on Tuesday to make a personal appeal to Senate Democrats – a rarity for a president, let alone a president-elect. He has dispatched emissaries to Congress for days now to confer with lawmakers on the plan.

The senator of four years is using his knowledge of Capitol Hill and a transition team stocked with House and Senate veterans to maneuver for victory while assuring lawmakers that he views Congress as a coequal branch of government.

The cooperative tone will be equally essential for winning congressional approval of his upcoming economic rescue plan, expected to cost about $775 billion.

Analysts say he must change the bailout program – which he acknowledges is flawed – enough to make it palatable to Democrats who opposed it last fall.

“If you stumble out of the gate, it’s a terrible precedent for what’s to come,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. That said, he added of Democrats, “I think they’ll walk the plank for him.”

Indeed, several Democrats emerged from Tuesday’s meeting seeming to agree with where Obama was heading. They said he told them he would veto any successful effort to block the money and promised more oversight of the program.

“I feel much more comfortable,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat who is up for re-election in two years and who initially voted for the bailout. Even so, she said she hasn’t yet decided on how to vote now amid outcry from her constituents.

One Democrat who voted against the bailout last fall, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, appeared frustrated with Obama’s team on the matter.

At Peter Orszag’s confirmation hearing to be Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Nelson said no one has been satisfied with how the first $350 billion has been spent and added, “I think in this era of freshness and transparency that the new administration would want to come forth with detail instead of this mumbo-jumbo that’s going on.”

Among Democratic freshmen who objected to the bailout, Sens. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Mark Udall of Colorado voted against it when they were in the House, while Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina said, “It’s a fix for Wall Street, not Main Street.”

These and other lawmakers are keenly aware of the potential pitfalls of backing the program. They watched as Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, almost lost his seat last fall over his supportive bailout vote.

Still, Obama has time – and a long-term political environment amenable to his party – on his side as he looks to secure Democratic support.

The 2010 midterm elections are still more than a year and a half away, and it’s far from certain that this single vote will have staying power as a vulnerability. If the economy does, in fact, improve, backing the program could actually be seen as a good move.

At the same time, several incumbent Democratic senators – such as Harry Reid of Nevada and Chuck Schumer of New York – are immensely popular in their home states.

And the political outlook is much worse for the GOP, with a spate of retirements – George Voinovich in Ohio, Kit Bond in Missouri and Mel Martinez in Florida – leaving open seats ripe for Democrats to seize.

Liz Sidoti has covered national politics for The Associated Press since 2003. AP writer Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Burris.

WASHINGTON — Eager to put the scandal-tainted standoff behind them, Senate Democrats accepted Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate successor on Monday and said they expect to swear in the new Illinois senator this week.

“He is now the senator-designate from Illinois and, as such, will be accorded all the rights and privileges of a senator-elect,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a joint statement after Senate lawyers determined that Burris’ paperwork met Senate requirements to be seated.

The two senators said they expect Burris, a former Illinois attorney general, to be sworn in and seated this week, barring objections from Republicans.

The announcement is a major reversal for Senate Democrats. They initially balked at the surprise appointment by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused by federal investigators of seeking to trade the Senate seat for personal favors, amid fears that any appointee would be tainted.

President-elect Barack Obama, right, announces more members to his economic team, left to right, Securities Exchange Commission chairman-designate, Mary Schapiro, Commodities Futures Trading Commission chairman-designate Gary Gensler and Federal Reserve Board of Governors-designate Daniel Tarullo at a news conference in Chicago on Thursday.

CHICAGO – Nearing completion of his Cabinet, Barack Obama has selected California Rep. Hilda Solis as his labor secretary and former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk as U.S. trade representative, officials said Thursday.

The president-elect planned to formally announce the Solis and Kirk selections soon, perhaps as early as Friday, along with that of Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois for transportation secretary.

On Thursday, Obama named three veteran regulators to help clean up financial debacles. Amid a year-old recession that’s still deepening, Obama blamed much of the nation’s economic troubles on government regulators who “dropped the ball,” and he called for a return to ethics and tough enforcement.

The officials who disclosed the Solis and Kirk selections spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss selections that had not yet been announced.

Solis, a Democratic congresswoman who is the daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants, has focused on immigration and environment issues while in the House. Kirk, a partner in the Dallas office of the Houston-based powerhouse law and lobbying firm Vinson & Elkins, was the first black to be elected Dallas mayor.

Obama is trying to get most of his major appointments out of the way before heading to Hawaii for a holiday vacation, and has held a news conference each day this week to unveil top positions. He has yet to announce senior intelligence positions, and numerous sub-Cabinet posts remain unfilled.

Standing before reporters on Thursday, Obama named Securities and Exchange Commission veteran Mary Schapiro as chairwoman of that agency, former Treasury official Gary Gensler to head the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and law professor Daniel Tarullo to fill an empty Federal Reserve seat. All three will need to be confirmed by the Senate next year.

In making the announcements, Obama pointed to Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff, under investigation in an alleged $50 billion fraud, and said the scandal underscored the need for tougher regulators. The scandal “has reminded us yet again of how badly reform is needed,” he said.

The president-elect said his new team will help put in place new rules that will help “crack down on the culture of greed and scheming.”

“There needs to be a shift in ethics on Wall Street,” he said.

As Obama spoke in Chicago, the White House said it is considering “orderly” bankruptcy as a way of dealing with the desperately ailing U.S. auto industry. President George W. Bush, asked about an auto rescue plan during an appearance before a private group, said he hadn’t decided what he would do but also spoke of the idea of bankruptcies organized by the federal government as a possible way to go.

Obama did not immediately comment on the idea.

But he wouldn’t weigh in on whether he would support a decision by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to tap the second $350 billion installment of the $700 billion financial bailout program. Major auto companies are pleading for emergency aid, which could come from that pot.

“I think it’s important that the Treasury, the Fed and all of us do whatever’s required to make sure that our financial system is stable and secure,” Obama said. But he added: “We cannot afford a collapse of our financial system. Main Street can’t afford it.” He said he would evaluate any Paulson signals about what is necessary.

More broadly, Obama blamed regulators for the financial debacle, saying that they, along with congressional committees, “have been asleep at the switch.”

Americans, as they watch their investments tank, are frustrated that “there’s not a lot of adult supervision out there,” Obama added.

Schapiro, who would be Obama’s top Wall Street regulator and investor protector, said that investor trust “is the lifeblood of financial markets.” She called for tough enforcement action by incoming regulators.

If confirmed by the Senate:

• Schapiro, who served as an SEC commissioner in Republican and Democratic administrations and is currently the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, would take over an agency that faces growing criticism for its failure to protect investors and detect trouble brewing on Wall Street.

As the scandal involving Madoff continues to stun the financial world, revelations have surfaced that staff at the SEC repeatedly failed over the course of a decade to fully investigate credible allegations against him. SEC Chairman Christopher Cox on Tuesday ordered the agency’s inspector general to investigate what went wrong.

• Gensler, a former Treasury official in the Clinton administration, would lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is an independent agency created by Congress to regulate trading in the commodity futures and option markets.

• Tarullo, a Georgetown law professor who also worked for President Bill Clinton, would fill an open seat on the Federal Reserve board in Washington.

All the present Fed board members, including chairman Ben Bernanke, were picked by Bush. Tarullo would fill one of two vacant seats on the seven-member board. A third seat also will become available.

Liz Sidoti reported from Washington. Associated Press Writer Jesse Holland in Washington contributed to this report.

———

ON THE NET

Obama transition: www.change.gov

By Nedra Pickler, Liz Sidoti

Embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich

WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama hasn’t even stepped into office and already a scandal – not of his own making – is threatening to dog him.

Obama isn’t accused of anything. But the fact that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a fellow Democrat, has been charged with trying to sell Obama’s now-vacant Senate post gives political opponents an opening to criticize him. A slew of questions remain. The investigation is still under way. And the ultimate impact on Obama is far from certain.

He pointedly distanced himself from the case Tuesday, saying, “I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so I was not aware of what was happening” concerning any possible dealing about Blagojevich’s appointment of a successor.

In an interview published in the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday, Obama reiterated that point, saying: “I have not discussed the Senate seat with the governor at any time.”

But Obama wouldn’t answer a question on whether he was aware of any conversations between the governor and his top aides, including incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” Obama said. “I think it would be inappropriate for me to . . . remark on the situation beyond the facts that I know.”

In Chicago on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said prosecutors were making no allegations that Obama was aware of any scheming. And Blagojevich himself, in taped conversations cited by prosecutors, suggested that Obama wouldn’t be helpful to him. Even if the governor was to appoint a candidate favored by the Obama team, Blagojevich said, “they’re not willing to give me anything except appreciation.”

Republicans pounced nonetheless.

“The serious nature of the crimes listed by federal prosecutors raises questions about the interaction with Gov. Blagojevich, President-elect Obama and other high ranking officials who will be working for the future president,” said Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the new GOP House whip.

Added Robert M. “Mike” Duncan, chairman of the Republican National Committee, “President-elect Barack Obama’s comments on the matter are insufficient at best.”

Robert Gibbs, an Obama spokesman, said, “We did not know about this recent part of the investigation until today.”

The two Illinois politicians have never been close and have largely operated in different Democratic Party camps in the state. Blagojevich’s disdain for Obama was clear in court documents; he is quoted as calling the president-elect a vulgar term in one phone conversation recorded by the FBI.

Despite all that, at the very least, the episode amounts to a distraction for Obama just six weeks before he’s sworn into office while he works to set up his new administration and deal with a national economic crisis. It also raises the specter of notorious Chicago politics, an image Obama has tried to distance himself from during his career.

In court documents, FBI Special Agent Daniel Cain detailed several phone calls between Blagojevich and his aides that were intercepted on court-authorized wiretaps over the past month. Blagojevich is accused of conspiring to sell or trade the vacant Senate seat for personal benefits for himself and his wife, Patti. Among his alleged desires: a Cabinet post, placement at a private foundation in a significant position, campaign contributions or an ambassadorship.

There were signs the continuing investigation could still involve Obama.

It appears that Obama friend Valerie Jarrett, an incoming senior White House adviser, is the person referred to repeatedly in court documents as “Candidate 1.” That individual is described as a woman who is “an adviser to the president-elect” and as the person Obama wanted appointed to the Senate seat. Court papers say that Candidate 1 eventually removed herself from consideration for the Senate seat.

Blagojevich talked at length about Candidate 1 in a Nov. 11 phone conversation with an aide.

One day later, Jarrett, a Chicago businesswoman who is one of three co-chairmen of Obama’s transition team and was a high-level adviser to his presidential campaign, made it known that she was not interested in the seat. On Nov. 15, Obama announced that Jarrett would be a senior White House adviser and assistant for intergovernmental relations.

Obama’s circle of major Illinois political allies and supporters is largely separate from Blagojevich’s, with two major exceptions. Both Obama and Blagojevich got extensive money and support from Chicago businessman Antoin “Tony” Rezko, who is awaiting sentencing after being convicted in June on charges of using clout with Blagojevich’s administration to help launch a $7 million kickback scheme. And Obama is close to Illinois Senate President Emil Jones, who has been the governor’s staunchest legislative ally.

At least one top aide to Obama, Michael Strautmanis, previously worked for Blagojevich. Obama has appointed Strautmanis to serve in a top post in the White House. The Chicago native was legislative director and counsel to Blagojevich when the governor was a member of Congress and then helped Blagojevich win the governorship in 2002. There is no indication that Strautmanis is involved in the case.

More details on the case could be forthcoming.

Court documents say they don’t include all calls dealing with the governor’s efforts regarding the Senate appointment. And many people in the documents are referred to by aliases; there’s little doubt their identities will eventually surface.

New Mexico to elevate first female governor

President-elect Barack Obama (right) and Commerce Secretary-designate New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson take part in a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday.

President-elect Barack Obama has selected New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be secretary of commerce in his new administration.

Richardson is the first Hispanic that Obama has named to his rapidly forming Cabinet, which also includes two women, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Janet Napolitano.

Richardson was among the challengers to Obama for the Democratic Party presidential nomination earlier this year and he has been secretary of energy and U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration.

Richardson’s nomination as commerce secretary has been all-but-announced for more than a week.

One of the nation’s most prominent Hispanic politicians, he will become the latest former Democratic primary opponent to join Obama’s Cabinet. The incoming chief executive has chosen another adversary-turned-ally, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to be his secretary of state. Obama also chose former rival Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate.

Obama is considering another Hispanic politician, California Democratic Rep. Xavier Becerra, to be U.S. Trade Representative, according to two Democratic officials speaking on a condition of anonymity ahead of an announcement for the position.

New Mexico’s Lt. Gov. Diane Denish, a Democrat will become the state’s first female governor when Richardson leaves to assume his new post. Denish will take over for the remainder of Richardson’s term, which runs through 2010.

In neighboring Arizona, the ascension of a Democratic governor will put the state in the hands of a Republican governor.

Under Arizona state law, the move of Gov. Janet Napolitano to secretary of Homeland Security will mean a Republican, Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer, will assume the reins there.

The president-elect has moved quickly to fill out his Cabinet, having named more than half of it in the month since he was elected the country’s 44th president.

An energy secretary and United Nations ambassador in President Bill Clinton’s administration, Richardson was a contender for the State Department job, but Obama offered him the post as commerce secretary after choosing the former first lady as his top diplomat.

Richardson sought the Democratic presidential nomination this year but eventually dropped out and endorsed Obama.

On Monday, Obama announced his foreign and national security team, led by Clinton and current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a Republican. A week ago, Obama named his economic team, led by Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary. In the coming weeks if not days, he plans to announce former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as health and human services secretary.

The upper echelon on his Cabinet now is in place.

Among those posts yet to be disclosed if not chosen: the heads of the Interior, Transportation, Labor, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Education, Agriculture and Veterans Affairs departments. Obama also has yet to name his intelligence team, including his director of national intelligence and CIA chief.

President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush’s Pentagon chief his own as he seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

At a news conference, Obama also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security.

The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.

“The time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century,” Obama said as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage.

“We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships.”

Obama said his appointees “share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the world.”

Gates’ presence in Chicago made him a visible symbol of the transition in power from the Bush administration to one headed by Obama.

The president-elect, reprising a campaign vow, said he would give the military a new mission as soon as he takes office: “responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control.” He did not mention his oft-repeated pledge to withdraw most U.S. combat troops within 16 months.

Clinton, Holder and Napolitano all require confirmation by the Senate.

Jones, as a White House official, does not. Nor does Gates, already confirmed to the post.

He also appointed campaign foreign policy aide Susan Rice as his ambassador to the United Nations. Obama said he would make her a member of the Cabinet, an increase in stature from the Bush era.

Obama’s announcements marked a shift in emphasis, after a spate of appointments last week for his economic team.

He now has selected half the members of his Cabinet, and is doing so at an unusually quick pace during his transition as he seeks to fulfill his goal of being able to “hit the ground running” when he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.

Obama introduced Clinton first, saying of his former presidential rival, “She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. … She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world’s leaders, who will command respect in every capital, and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world.”

Clinton will give up her seat as a senator from New York to join the Obama Cabinet. Her appointment was preceded by lengthy negotiations involving her husband, the former president, whose international business connections posed potential conflicts of interests.

The former president also agreed to disclose the donors to the foundation that built his library, as well as contributors to his international foundation.

She said to Obama, in a brief turn at the lectern, “I am proud to join you … and may God bless you and our great country.”

Sen. Clinton had scarcely finished speaking when her husband issued a written statement. “She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America’s image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities,” he said.

Gates said he was “mindful that we are engaged in two wars and face other serious challenges at home and around the world.”

“I must do my duty as they do theirs,” he said of the men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. “How could I do otherwise?”

He said he was “honored to serve President-elect Obama.”

Gates’ appointment fulfilled a campaign promise by Obama, the naming of a Republican to his Cabinet.

Holder vowed to revitalize a Justice Department staggered by scandal during the Bush administration, both over the dismissal of federal prosecutors and the administration’s program of wiretapping as part of its war against terrorists.

Napolitano, like Clinton, must resign her current job. As a border state governor, she has experience with immigration issues, one of the pressing concerns that will confront the new administration.

Obama said Jones, his national security adviser, “will bring to the job the dual experience of serving in uniform and as a diplomat. He has commanded a platoon in battle, served as supreme allied commander in a time of war and worked on behalf of peace in the Middle East.”

The event was unlike those of last week, when Obama was the only one to speak. This time, he called on each of his appointees to make remarks, beginning with Clinton.

Vice President-elect Joe Biden said each member of the team shares the goals and the principles of the new administration that “strength and wisdom must go hand in hand,” and that America’s security “is not a partisan issue.”

Obama has settled on additional members of his Cabinet, although they have not yet been announced.

Among them are former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health and human services and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be commerce secretary.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asked about Clinton at a news conference in London, said Monday: “I think that she will bring enormous energy and intellect and skill to the position.”

“Most important, I know her to be somebody who has what you need most in this job, which is a deep love for the United States of America,” Rice said. She added, “As to advice, I’ll give her that advice privately, and then she won’t — and you won’t — hear from me again.”

The decisions mean Obama has half of the 15-member Cabinet assembled less than a month after the election, including the most prominent positions at State, Justice, Treasury and Defense. With the world grappling with war, recession and terrorist threats that erupted this week during coordinated attacks in India, Obama was moving swiftly to try to bring reassurance and continuity in the federal government when he takes over in less than two months.

Clinton’s nomination is the latest chapter in what began as a bitter rivalry for the Democratic presidential nomination. To make it possible for his wife to become secretary of state, party officials said, former President Bill Clinton agreed to:

—Disclose the names of every contributor to his foundation since its inception in 1997 and all contributors going forward.

—Refuse donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Global Initiative, his annual charitable conference.

—Cease holding CGI meetings overseas.

—Volunteer to step away from day-to-day management of the foundation while his wife is secretary of state.

—Submit his speaking schedule to review by the State Department and White House counsel.

—Submit any new sources of income to a similar ethical review.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that he plans to vote to confirm Clinton.

Lugar said there would still be “legitimate questions” raised about the former president’s extensive international involvement. “I don’t know how, given all of our ethics standards now, anyone quite measures up to this who has such cosmic ties, but … hopefully, this team of rivals will work,” Lugar said.

President-elect Barack Obama last week lifts his daughter Sasha out of his vehicle as daughter Malia looks on as he dropped them off at school in Chicago.

CHICAGO – Barack Obama seems to be savoring his last few days of near-normalcy.

Or at least as normal as life can be for a president-elect living in a house fortified with barriers, traveling in a motorcade, surrounded by Secret Service agents and mapping out the next administration.

Even his barber makes house calls now, depriving Obama of the regular barber shop visits he seemed to enjoy.

Still, after winning the presidency on Nov. 4, Obama has tried to reclaim as much as he can of the family focused routine he sacrificed while campaigning for nearly two years.

He wakes up in his own bed, heads to the gym for a workout, returns to his house in leafy Hyde Park to shower and change, and then travels to a downtown Chicago office building, 15 minutes away by motorcade. He spends several hours there before returning home to his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha.

The future president and first lady still go to their favorite restaurant, Spiaggia, for Italian food. Obama dropped the girls at their school two days last week, and even attended parent-teacher conferences.

He plans a family vacation in Hawaii, as usual, over the Christmas holiday.

“I am not going to be spending too much time in Washington over the next several weeks,” Obama said in a recent phone conversation overheard by reporters on his plane.

But on Jan. 20 he will become president and move his family into the White House, where almost nothing will be the same.

“It transforms their lives,” said Thomas E. Cronin, a presidential scholar at Colorado College in Colorado Springs. “All of them, no matter who they are, yearn to get away for time with family or friends.”

Obama has endured increasing restrictions on his day-to-day activities as he ascended the political ladder at warp speed, from the Illinois Legislature to the U.S. Senate to president-elect. It has not been easy.

After securing the Democratic nomination, he bristled when news organizations insisted on having a “protective pool” of reporters and photographers shadow his every move, even when it required them to sit for hours in vans outside his gym, office and home. He eventually yielded to the inevitable, knowing that nominees, presidents-elect and presidents have agreed to such arrangements for years.

On Halloween, Obama grew annoyed when journalists maneuvered to capture him walking down a Chicago street with Sasha, 7, in costume.

“Leave us alone. Come on, guys,” Obama said. At one point, he and Sasha began jogging to get away.

For at least four years, and perhaps eight, his life will certainly not be his own.

Obama will not drive a car or go anywhere by himself. It is a good bet he has not since he got Secret Service protection early last year. He will not live alone in the Capitol Hill apartment just off Stanton Park anymore. The trade-off is a much bigger house, rent free, with ample space for his daughters, the first lady and her mother.

Some days he will not venture beyond the gates of the White House compound. Everything he needs is on site or easily brought to him.

Still, “all first families try to have some normalcy,” said Philip Henderson, a presidential scholar at Catholic University in Washington.

But even routine matters, such as picking out a puppy for the girls, play out before cameras, lights and microphones.

“This is a major issue,” Obama deadpanned to reporters at his first postelection news conference. The family wants a dog from a shelter that will not trigger Malia’s allergies. “Whether we’re going to be able to balance those two things, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household,” he said.

Inevitably, Obama’s life as a semi-normal citizen is vanishing. He travels in a reinforced sport utility vehicle, with a counterassault team tailing him. He enters and exits buildings under heavy protection, through underground parking garages or back doors, out of sight from the public.

As banners congratulating Obama hang from Chicago lampposts, clusters of people gather on street corners as his motorcade zips along temporarily closed streets. Some cheer at the sight of him, others scowl in annoyance. Concrete barriers and metal fences surround the perimeter of his Hyde Park block, certainly an inconvenience to his neighbors.

And his once-regular visits to the Hyde Park Hair Salon & Barber Shop? Its large glass window, where crowds formed to watch Obama get a trim, made security impossible.

Now the barber comes to the home of one of Obama’s friends. In a few weeks, the Obamas will live in a new home, with even greater security and more confinements.