Obama Supplants Bush to Set Out Spending Plan

Barack Obama yesterday defended his shift to center stage on the economic crisis, supplanting George Bush even though there are still almost two months before he takes over the presidency.

In one of the fastest transitions in recent US political history, Obama held his second press conference in two days to set out his borrowing and spending plans for kick-starting the economy.

He is to hold a third press conference on the economy today just before America closes down for the Thanksgiving holiday.

His intervention contrasts with the near absence of Bush, who spent the weekend at a Pacific Rim summit in Peru before making a fleeting and faltering appearance on Monday with his treasury secretary, Henry Paulson.

Bush, as part of the usual tradition of winding up office, spent part of Monday granting 14 pardons and commuting two prison sentences, including one for John Forte, the hip-hop artist and back-up singer to Carly Simon who was convicted on cocaine charges.

Obama, at a press conference in Chicago, reiterated the mantra that there could only be one president at a time, but he went on to add the all-crucial word "however".

He said: "Given the extraordinary circumstances that we find ourselves in ... I think it is very important for the American people to understand that we are putting together a first-class team and for them to have clarity that we don't intend to stumble into the next administration. We are going to hit the ground running."

Normally a president-elect would maintain a relatively low profile in the run-up to office and Obama spent almost all of last week holed up in Chicago either at home or at his headquarters. Bill Clinton, when he took over in 1993, had an extremely slow start.

Obama's team took the decision that the president-elect could not afford to wait any longer, given the scale of the crisis. The president-elect told journalists yesterday he wanted a nervous US public to know "their new president has a plan and is going to act swiftly and boldly".

While Obama led the US television networks yesterday and today, Bush has been largely invisible, apart from pictures of him in a poncho at the Lima summit.

Bush was criticised in the US for going to the summit rather than dealing with the economic crisis but the White House said the summit was relevant to the economy.

Two hours before Obama's press conference, Paulson announced a new tranche of cash being thrown at the crisis, with $800bn (£518bn) to help free up credit.

On Monday, Obama spoke about his multibillion dollar stimulus package that he hopes to enact soon after taking over on January 20.

Yesterday, he concentrated on how he hoped to pay not only for his own stimulus package but those billions committed by Bush and Paulson.

He said spending cuts will have to be made to ensure that the mountains of debt are not passed on to the next generation. He indicated that two areas that face cutbacks are farm subsidies and healthcare.